Nurse education, practice, quality and retention - workforce expansion program - western university of health sciences (WESTERNU) proposes to implement the training for underrepresented nurses…

Western University of Health Sciences (WesterNU) received a $996,571 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Health Professionals under the Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention (NEPQR) Grants program (CFDA 93.359), effective September 30, 2025, through September 29, 2029. WesterNU will implement the Training for Underrepresented Nurses (WU-TURN) program, a Workforce Expansion initiative designed to expand nursing education capacity and address critical nurse shortages in rural and underserved areas, particularly in acute and long-term care settings. The program includes a 39% expansion of WesterNU's College of Graduate Nursing, enabling enrollment of 40 pre-licensure nursing students annually who will receive didactic instruction, clinical rotations, and simulation-based training to develop clinical competency and reasoning skills.

The WU-TURN program delivers specialized training through an enhanced preceptorship model in partnership with four hospitals (Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, San Antonio Regional Hospital, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, and Kaiser Permanente Ontario) and one senior living community (Claremont Manor Retirement Community) located in Pomona, California. Students will gain over 200 additional hours of hands-on clinical experience and select from five clinical specialty areas including gerontology, obstetrics, critical care, emergency department, and one additional specialty. The initiative addresses California's nursing education capacity constraints by preparing practice-ready professional nurses from underrepresented populations to serve vulnerable populations in medically underserved communities.

Nurse education, practice, quality and retention - workforce expansion program - western university of health sciences (WESTERNU) proposes to implement the training for underrepresented nurses (WU-TURN) program to address the nation's critical shortage of nurses, particularly in acute and long-term care settings in rural and underserved areas, which will 1) increase the nursing workforce in underserved areas to address the critical shortage of registered nurses; 2) increase the number of nursing students receiving additional specialized training in acute and long-term care settings; and 3) increase the number of clinical faculty to train nursing students. Needs addressed include being accepted into a nursing program, given that 70% of all california-qualified applicants are denied admission due to capacity limits and community needs. WESTERNU is ready - upon award - to implement, manage, and operate the WU-TURN program. WESTERNU's college of graduate nursing's (CGN's) 39% program expansion will educate pre-licensure students with clinical competency and clinical reasoning skills through didactic, clinical rotations, and simulation to prepare practice-ready professional nurses. The WU-TURN program will also offer a new "enhanced preceptorship" model, providing specialized training to diversify the workforce and educate nursing students in acute and long-term care settings. We will educate forty (40) pre-licensure students annually with subject matter experts at partnering clinical sites - four hospitals and one comprehensive senior living community (pomona valley hospital medical center, SAN antonio regional hospital, arrowhead regional medical center, kaiser permanente ontario, claremont manor retirement community). Participants will gain over 200 additional hours of hands-on clinical experience, facilitating clinical reasoning and practice readiness. Students will select one of five clinical areas: gerontology, obstetrics, critical care, emergency department, and operating room, each deemed a high-shortage area in the region. WU-TURN's program service area is california's inland empire (IE), ethnically and socioeconomically diverse communities in SAN bernardino, riverside, and LOS angeles counties, totaling 4.67 million individuals and predominantly hispanic/latino (54%). However, this is not reflected in the current nursing workforce (8.5% hispanic/latino in california and 5.6% in the U.S.). One population served in WU-TURN is nursing students, and WESTERNU's holistic admissions process is designed to recruit students who mirror the local IE communities. WESTERNU enrolls qualified nursing students who are inherently more prepared to relate to the local community's cultural norms and characteristics and the area's specific health disparities. WESTERNU's clinical site partners will then hire and onboard nurses who reflect their community, resulting in an instant cultural competency far less likely to be achieved using non-holistic methods. CGN's enhanced program deploys nurses at the same speed and with similar tendencies of remaining local as other non-master's level students, with the critical added value of receiving a more robust, comprehensive education and training program. We will heavily focus on gerontology because aging patients are encountered in acute and long-term care settings, and less than 5% of the health professions workforce is certified in geriatrics. We also support acute care obstetrics because of the grave unmet needs of mothers in the IE, which ranks worse than state benchmarks in 4 of 6 maternal and infant health indicators. WESTERNU qualifies for funding priority 1 (located in california) and funding preference qualification 2 (substantially benefits underserved populations).