CHILLICOTHE, OH (October 30, 2024)– Adena Health and Shawnee State University are banding together in a new educational partnership that will help meet a growing demand for health care professionals while giving those interested in a health care career a leg up in securing future employment.

The two organizations are expanding on their existing relationship in a new endeavor to establish an academic campus site for Shawnee State’s College of Health & Human Services inside Adena’s PACCAR Medical Education Center in Chillicothe. Exploring nursing and radiologic technology first, the initiative has the potential to offer education and training in about a half dozen health care professions.

Among other disciplines expected to be rolled out as the partnership develops are medical laboratory technology, physical therapist assistant, respiratory therapy, and occupational therapy.

For local students, the new partnership will expand access to the educational programs they want without the travel time, allow them to build relationships and become immersed in a real-world health care environment, and put them in a better position for employment locally following graduation. For Adena Health, it will provide a pool of potential candidates to meet the kinds of future staffing needs that are facing hospitals across the country. For Shawnee State, it offers additional space to meet student demand for those programs.

“By being able to offer this curriculum on our campus, we will be able to welcome students to train here, get their clinical experience here, and hopefully step into open roles here as efforts to meet community needs continue to grow,” said Adena Health President and CEO Jeff Graham.

“The best thing we can do is recruit local talent and keep it in southern and south central Ohio,” added Shawnee State University President Eric Braun. “We have a lot of people who want to stay in the region professionally, so the more we’re able to provide attractive offerings like this, the more we’re going to be able to retain this local talent.”

The initiative will not impact Adena’s existing educational and training partnerships with other area colleges and universities, nor Shawnee State’s relationships with other regional hospitals, which remain very valued by both parties.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the health care industry in this country will see about 1.8 million job openings added each year for the next decade, but faces a projected worker shortage in the hundreds of thousands. Access to programs such as the one this partnership will create can help address that discrepancy regionally.

Over time, the program will provide several benefits for both health care and the economy across the region. Among them:

• Contributing to the creation of an ongoing, stable health care workforce for all hospitals in the region that can meet all community needs now and into the future.
• Producing better overall health outcomes in communities across the region.
• Expanding the recruiting pipeline for quality talent and providing opportunities for graduates to find and fill open positions within the health system.
• Leveraging the shared resources available through both Adena and Shawnee State for the good of the future health care workforce.

Shawnee State is working with required accreditation and external regulatory approval organizations to explore potential opportunities and develop timelines.