Funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), CT Health Horizons responds to a statewide shortage of nursing and social work professionals. Working in partnership with over 20 public and private colleges, the initiative is addressing the need by providing tuition assistance, supporting faculty expansion and creating career-based partner programs with healthcare providers.

During the first year of CT Health Horizons, 591 scholarships were issued and 42 faculty expansions were enacted among public and private colleges statewide. Funding also allowed for the development of 16 innovative partnership programs or expansion of programs between higher education and the healthcare industry.

Quinnipiac Provost Debra Liebowitz welcomed Scanlon and Chief Workforce Officer Kelli-Marie Vallieres of the CT Office of Workforce Strategy to the highly attended event at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine on the North Haven Campus.

Liebowitz discussed the vital role higher education plays in helping to address the critical shortage of healthcare workers across the state.

“Addressing the shortage requires a multipronged, coordinated effort to make a difference in a long-term way,” Liebowitz said. “We’ve been happy to partner on this effort, because it is exemplary of the kinds of strategies that are needed in order to make a difference in a sustained way.”

As a first-year program participant, Quinnipiac received four grants. The funding assisted in recruiting and retaining social work and nursing students through tuition support; recruiting and retaining social work and nursing faculty; and in the development of two new initiatives. One initiative partners Quinnipiac School of Nursing with Hartford HealthCare to implement a comprehensive, employer-led program to build a sustainable pipeline into the nursing workforce in Connecticut. Quinnipiac is also implementing an innovative social work program that will help master of social work graduates across the state prepare for licensure.

As state comptroller, Scanlon oversees Connecticut’s largest healthcare plan providing 300,000 residents affordable coverage. He said he’ll work not only to provide the best opportunities for success through CT Health Horizons, but to build the concept into a sustainable state program once ARPA funding is exhausted.

Whether state residents are receiving healthcare assistance or can afford and access healthcare independently, Scanlon said continuing the CT Health Horizons program is critical as more healthcare professionals are needed to support them.

“It’s really a gamechanger for the state, and I think in a $20 billion annual budget, we can continue to find $35 million to do this,” Scanlon said. “I know how difficult it is to balance the state budget, but budgets are a reflection of our priorities and our moralities. I don’t know of too many other priorities to make sure that we have the people in our healthcare system to staff our doctors’ offices, our hospitals and our community health centers to make sure everybody has access to healthcare they deserve and need.”

Roundtable participants shared details of the many ways in which CT Health Horizons has opened new avenues to expand opportunities that higher education and healthcare partners can offer to help grow Connecticut’s healthcare workforce.

Hartford HealthCare Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Rocco Orlando said university partnerships play an essential role in promoting workforce development. On any given day, 13,000 Connecticut higher education students are engaged with Hartford HealthCare­­­­ through these partnerships, Orlando noted.

Orlando said he is a strong supporter of the CT Health Horizons program and the need for the program to be sustained to support an aging population with rising healthcare needs.

“The shortages that we face are only going to get worse. This is not a blip. This is systemic change that we’re looking at and need to be prepared for,” said Orlando.

Vallieres said her office is looking beyond the labor market’s number of job openings to ensure it is closely monitoring other relevant data. One area being tracked is numbers showing 4,200 Connecticut nurses anticipated to exit the profession annually for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, annual growth within the industry is targeted at 1,000.

“So we’re trying to solve for 5,200 people,” Vallieres told the group. “When we look at the capacity that you have and all that you’re doing, what strikes me is the level of innovation that you’re all putting out there with accelerated programs, with additional access for students, with providing vital career pathways. That’s exactly the type of thinking and work that an innovative system will bring together.”

Vallieres said the initiative’s return on investment can be measured by the effective leveraging of funds, to date, which have developed successful, scalable programs created by its higher education and healthcare partners.

Liebowitz said CT Health Horizons’ support of innovative programming, combined with its student support and faculty support, has allowed Quinnipiac to further the university’s existing accomplishments and goals of generating unique programs supportive of student needs.

“The breadth of this program has really facilitated our ability to be even more innovative than we anticipated,” said Liebowitz.