St. Luke’s announces financial aid program for Kirkwood nursing students

CEDAR RAPIDS — UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital has announced a partnership with Kirkwood Community College to offer financial aid to nursing students who have accepted job offers at the Cedar Rapids hospital.

This is the second partnership St. Luke’s has established with a Cedar Rapids-based nursing school as the health system creates new approaches to the need for nurses, highlighting the challenges hospitals in Iowa and nationwide face in the midst of ongoing staff shortages.

“This is one way we are tackling the nursing shortage, by supporting students financially and offering them a path to their hopefully long and rewarding career in nursing,” said Carmen Kleinsmith, St. Luke’s senior vice president and chief nurse executive.

On Monday, Kirkwood and St. Luke’s officials announced the implementation of the Senior Promise Program for nursing students set to graduate in 2022 or 2023.

Qualifying students will go on to work full time as nurses in a unit or department that St. Luke’s has identified as the greatest area of need for staff. That includes critical care, adult acute care, behavioral health, inpatient rehabilitation, the emergency department and the operating rooms.

Students selected for the program will receive financial support that will help cover tuition for the final two semesters of their senior year. Kirkwood officials said the aid is awarded on a three-tier schedule based on the students’ expected family contribution, calculated from their Free Application for Federal Student Aid form.

Students are also eligible for a sign-on bonus, depending on the department they work in, officials said.

Both the sign-on bonus and tuition support will be fully forgiven if the recipient completes 18 months of employment at the hospital as a nurse.

Kathy Dolter, Kirkwood’s dean of nursing, said the financial aid offered through the program is “a game-changing opportunity” for nursing students.

“This program allows our students to graduate with significantly less debt, and that's incredibly impactful for someone just starting their career," Dolter said in a statement. "Student debt is a huge roadblock for many seeking to establish themselves after graduation, and it’s important to take advantage of any chance we have to ease that massive burden.”

This past week, St. Luke’s announced it had established a Senior Promise Program for Mount Mercy University nursing students graduating in 2022 and 2023. This program offers the same financial aid and sign-on bonus, which will be forgiven after 18 months of employment.

Mount Mercy also established a partnership with Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids to provide nursing students with hands-on work experience and financial aid. These students accepted into the program, called the MercyReady Nursing Education Assistance Program, must agree to work at Mercy as full-time nurses for at least two years.

These new partnerships between higher education institutions and health care systems highlight a new urgency in the face of health care staff shortages, Mount Mercy University President Todd Olson told The Gazette last week.

Nearly 60 percent of health care organizations statewide say they have a shortage of qualified applicants for open nursing jobs, according to a 2020 report by Iowa Workforce Development and the Iowa Board of Nursing. Of those, 19 percent reported an “extreme” shortage and roughly 36 percent noted a “great” shortage.

“It’s a particularly turbulent time,” Olson said. “What has come out of this is a particular urgency around strengthening partnerships at this time.”

Kirkwood nursing students who are interested in the St. Luke’s Promise Program should email stlukescr@unitypoint.org.

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