The San Joaquin Valley Health Consortium - Nursing Work Force Diversity Initiative Home

Launch

The Central Valley was selected for The California Endowment’s $10 million pilot Central Valley Nursing Work Force Diversity Initiative. Recent data shows that the Southern/Central Valley is experiencing one of the most severe nursing shortages in the state. Additionally, ethnic minority and other disadvantaged group representation in the Central Valley nurse work force are extremely low. Nursing stakeholders in the area have been meeting to address the nursing crisis, providing a real opportunity to create change as part of The Endowment’s strategy to increase the number of nurses and diversifying the nursing work force in this region.

The objective of the San Joaquin Valley Health Consortium is to build the capacity of Nursing Education Programs: A grant provided by The California Endowment allows the San Joaquin Valley Health Consortium to support implementation of a regranting strategy to help build the capacity of nursing education programs. The regranting program will support innovations along the continuum of nursing training from middle school through Masters Degree in Nursing (MSN) outreach and education. The San Joaquin Valley Health Consortium was identified as a neutral regional coordinating body with demonstrated experience in administrating similar programs in the health arena.

To serve as the lead organization in developing a regional approach to increase nursing work force diversity as a means to address the regional nursing shortage. The Health Consortium will be responsible for developing a regranting program to help the region’s nursing programs attract, prepare, recruit, enroll, retain, and graduate diverse student bodies. The Health Consortium will also manage and convene grantees to facilitate dialogue and ensure all the components of the program are working together toward the common goal. Additionally, the Health Consortium will bring together an advisory committee of regional community, academic, business and nursing stakeholders to ensure ongoing articulation of and commitment to a shared regional vision.

The San Joaquin Valley Health Consortium (Health Consortium), in its 30-year role as the San Joaquin Valley Area Health Education Center (AHEC), has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to improving the supply, distribution and diversity of health care professionals through community/academic partnerships. The Health Consortium has partnered with local health, education and advocacy organizations to recruit and retain underrepresented and disadvantaged persons within the field of health. The Health Consortium was founded in 1972 in response to a community planning health care initiative to bring more physicians to the underserved Central Valley. The Consortium now administers more than 15 healthcare programs to an ethnically diverse population of 2.2 million within a seven-county area, the approximate size of West Virginia.

California is facing a nursing shortage crisis. The Endowment’s three-year strategy addresses the shortage by targeting underrepresented groups of Californians in nursing training and career development. This strategy will not only tap into a previously underutilized pool of Californians, but will also improve the diversity of the nursing work force.

These circumstances, combined with the foundation’s commitment to increase funding in the Central Valley, make the region a logical choice for implementation of a pilot program to address the dual issues of nursing diversity and the nursing shortage. For the purposes of this program, the Central Valley is limited to six central California counties: Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare Counties.

Download video highlights of The California Endowment launch of a three-year, $10 million pilot project.

Who: Dr. Ross, CEO of The California Endowment

What: Opening comments, Nursing Diversity Initiative Launch

When: Wednesday March 27th 2002

Where: Fresno City College Health and Sciences Lab

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