Hospitals statewide are facing staffing shortages, with rural hospitals feeling the strain the most. UNC Health Wayne is taking a new approach to recruit and retain nurses.
The hospital recently partnered with the Scholars Network, an organization founded in 2023 that aims to help hospital systems find staff for key positions, such as nurses and nurse anesthetists. It’s the network’s first partnership with a North Carolina hospital system.
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The program offers nurses up to $40,000 in student loan repayment in exchange for working at UNC Health Wayne after graduation. The program does not require health care workers to stay the full three years to benefit. Those who leave early can still receive partial loan repayment, based on the time they worked.
“In North Carolina, much like other parts of the country, we’re seeing a significant nursing shortage,” said Sam Maron, founder and vice president of the Scholars Network. “Even when there are enough nurses, a lot of hospitals experience a lot of turnover and that people will move between different jobs. One of the things that hospitals are really interested in is helping people to start their career without the burden of student debt.”
Shaquida Lane graduated from the University of Mount Olive in December and now works as a registered nurse at UNC Health Wayne. She is also a part of the inaugural group of staff involved in the program.
“I feel like it is very beneficial,” Lane said. “It keeps you from having to be stuck where you have to worry about loans as well as working and coming out of school. It's kind of a stress reliever coming out of school. For a lot of people, that’s like the biggest thing is trying to still survive outside of school with regular bills and income.”
The Dudley native said her goal was to stay in Wayne County to provide care and give back to the community where she was raised.
Lane currently works in the emergency department. She said she believes the program will help recruit more nurses looking to make an impact in rural areas.
“Being in a Scholars Program, it kind of helps you transition and grow into your role and educational wise climb that clinical ladder,” she said. “I feel like it’ll help the area.”
Hospital leaders say their goal is to recruit 56 nurses through the program. Maron said nearly 20 nurses have already joined the program, with the number expected to grow in the coming years.
“That will be the highest number we've hired in one year,” said Jessie Tucker, president and CEO of UNC Health Wayne. “Of course, our long-term goal is to retain them three years out. We know that there's a high turnover rate that first year, the second year, and up to the third year. If you retain a nurse past the third year, then you have a pretty good idea of keeping them longer term.”
Tucker said those hiring goals come as hospitals face ongoing recruitment challenges amid closures of rural hospitals.
“It’s a huge challenge to recruit healthcare professionals of any specialty to this area,” Tucker said. “We’re pretty well staffed at this point, but the challenge is as nurses retire and technicians retire and physicians get older, it’s harder to prepare for the future.”
Tucker said challenges for rural hospitals go beyond staffing, and often reflect broader barriers that patients face when trying to access care. The hospital executive explained even simple travel can be difficult, stating, “There are members of our community who have never been to Raleigh.”
He continued, “There are transportation challenges, and there are food insecurities. Oftentimes, there are economic challenges that prevent them from taking care of themselves.”The result: patients seeing emergency room providers like Lane at UNC Health Wayne often have conditions that are further along, due to a lack of routine care.
“You see a lot of mental health, and you see a lot of people coming in with dialysis issues,” Lane said. “Just a lot of people not having resources and being able to get the things they need outside on a day-to-day basis. Being here and giving people the resources and helping them get to where they need to be and get that care that they need is everything.”The hospital said recruiting more nurses will help alleviate some of that burden and improve access to care.
Hospital leaders say the Scholars Program is just one piece of a broader effort to recruit and retain healthcare workers, as rural hospitals continue to compete with larger systems for staff.
The hospital also partners with local universities, including East Carolina University, Barton College and the University of Mount Olive, to help build a pipeline of future healthcare workers.
Maron said the Scholars Program is already gaining traction in other parts of the country.
“We’re seeing employees in places like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York that are starting to adopt this model and seeing it as a path forward,” Maron said.
Maron said UNC Health Wayne was selected as the state’s first partner for the network because the Scholars Network was “looking for a great partner that represented the best of rural healthcare.”
Nurses looking to join the UNC Wayne Scholars Nursing program can find more information and apply online.