Click here for a larger view

(Honesdale, April 7, 2009)… “We need nurses and we are looking at innovative ways to grow our own,” said Virginia Fries, RN, at a meeting at Wayne Memorial Hospital (WMH) in March. She spoke to representatives from seven local school districts in Pennsylvania and New York State about a potential collaboration with Luzerne County Community College (LCCC) that could prepare local high school students for healthcare careers.

      The collaboration could offer students reduced college tuition costs, early graduation from college and the assurance of a job with benefits. In today’s precarious economy, advantages like these are difficult to ignore.

      Three school districts jumped at the chance to tell their students about the potential collaboration—Western Wayne, Wallenpaupack and Wayne Highlands.  Over the course of the next few weeks, these districts will host town meetings to inform the public, particularly parents and students, about healthcare opportunities in their own backyard.

      WMH is aggressively pursing its own course to prepare the next generation of nurses to work at the hospital—with good reason.

      “The average age of our RNs (registered nurses) is 43 years old,” WMH’s Director of Patient Care Services, Virginia Fries, RN, told the audience. “Baby boomers now reaching their older years are going to need care and we are not going to have the resources to care for them, unless we become directly involved to develop quality nurses to meet those demands.”

      Enter LCCC.

      Dana Clark, RN, EdD, Dean of Nursing and Health Science