NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, today announced multiple HCA Healthcare Foundation grants, through its Healthier Tomorrow Fund, to provide high school students early access to careers in healthcare and to connect unemployed and underemployed jobseekers with meaningful healthcare career opportunities. The HCA Healthcare Foundation is giving $250,000 to community colleges and universities and $130,000 to the Urban League of Broward County.
“We are proud to invest in the next generation of healthcare professionals through our Healthier Tomorrow Fund grants,” said Joanne Pulles, vice president of community engagement at HCA Healthcare and president of the HCA Healthcare Foundation. “We believe helping to provide greater exposure and access to the many different careers in healthcare will not only strengthen the industry, but also the communities we serve.”
The HCA Healthcare Foundation will work with community colleges and universities to help high school students learn about various healthcare careers through the following grants:
- The HCA Healthcare Foundation is giving $50,000 to Austin Community College (ACC) to fund the Future Healthcare Heroes program, which selects 30 rising juniors and seniors to be paired with a professional mentor from either ACC or a healthcare institution in the region to learn from and attend experiential learning events. These include roundtable discussions and tours of local healthcare learning facilities and hospitals.
- Metro State University of Denver (MSU) is receiving $50,000 to fund their Designing Your Life workshops, Navigating Your Healthcare Career event and Health Equity lecture to help build awareness and generate a strong interest in a variety of healthcare careers.
- Miami Dade College (MDC) is receiving $50,000 towards their Care Cadre Nurse Exploration Experience which brings 24 high school students together from historically marginalized backgrounds to generate interest in healthcare careers in nursing leadership.
- The HCA Healthcare Foundation is also giving $50,000 to Pensacola State College to help fund the Nurse Explorer Boot Camp to help expand and accelerate the nursing pipeline by bringing 12-20 high school students together, aiming to inspire them to pursue a career in nursing.
- The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) is also receiving $50,000 to expand on its existing dual credit initiative to help provide a robust experience for high school students, including nursing, exercise science, public health, and other healthcare-related fields through recruitment and experiential learning activities.
In addition, the HCA Healthcare Foundation is giving $130,000 to the Urban League of Broward County as part of the Healthcare Workforce Enhancement Initiative. Through this grant, the Urban League of Broward County will pilot a workforce development program for those who have been disconnected from the workforce to explore careers in the healthcare field. Their comprehensive model includes career assessment and coaching, credentialing and job placement assistance.
The Healthier Tomorrow Fund has provided $2.68 million through 21 grants to support access to healthcare careers. In 2022 alone, the fund gave $905,000 through 15 grants.
HCA Healthcare and the HCA Healthcare Foundation continue to invest in efforts to further healthcare education and address the national nursing and caregiver shortage. This includes:
- Over the 2021-2022 school year, there was engagement with students in every HCA Healthcare division through partnerships with local high schools, including healthcare career programming, guest speakers, job shadows and field trips.
- In Nashville, HCA Healthcare and the HCA Healthcare Foundation support the Academies of Nashville by connecting students and teachers with HCA Healthcare experts and volunteers, funding special projects and supporting partnerships.
- In 2020, HCA Healthcare acquired majority ownership of Galen College of Nursing, one of the largest educators of nurses in the United States and has now opened 12 new campuses.
- HCA Healthcare has committed $10 million to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) to advance diversity in the healthcare career pipeline. Since 2021, HCA Healthcare has announced approximately $6.75 million to multiple colleges and universities towards that commitment.
- Establishing the Patricia Frist Memorial Scholarship to support dependents of HCA Healthcare colleagues in pursuing post-secondary education.
Since its inception in 2021, the Healthier Tomorrow Fund has committed $18.3 million in grants to 51 organizations. Funding the Healthier Tomorrow Fund at the HCA Healthcare Foundation is one example of the many ways HCA Healthcare is making a positive impact in the communities it serves.
About HCA Healthcare
Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services comprising 182 hospitals and approximately 2,300 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom. With its founding in 1968, HCA Healthcare created a new model for hospital care in the United States, using combined resources to strengthen hospitals, deliver patient-focused care and improve the practice of medicine. HCA Healthcare has conducted a number of clinical studies, including one that demonstrated that full-term delivery is healthier than early elective delivery of babies and another that identified a clinical protocol that can reduce bloodstream infections in ICU patients by 44%. HCA Healthcare is a learning health system that uses its more than 35 million annual patient encounters to advance science, improve patient care and save lives. Please click here to connect with HCA Healthcare on social media.
About HCA Healthcare Foundation
The mission of the HCA Healthcare Foundation is to promote health and well-being and strive to make a positive impact in all the communities HCA Healthcare serves. We accomplish this mission by providing leadership, service and financial support to effective non-profit organizations working individually and collectively.
All references to “Company,” “HCA” and “HCA Healthcare” as used throughout this document refer to HCA Healthcare, Inc. and its affiliates.
