HCA Healthcare Inc., one of the nation's leading healthcare providers, through the HCA Healthcare Foundation and its Healthier Tomorrow Fund, recently launched a series of scholarships for high school students that will give them early access to careers in healthcare and connect unemployed and underemployed job seekers with meaningful career opportunities in healthcare.

Joanne Pulles, vice president of community engagement at HCA Healthcare and president of the HCA Healthcare Foundation, stated:

We are proud to invest in the next generation of healthcare professionals through our Healthier Tomorrow Fund grants.

What are the grants?

The HCA Healthcare Foundation provided $250,000 to community colleges and universities and $130,000 to the Urban League of Broward County.

• 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 awarding $130,000 to the Urban League of Broward County as part of the Healthcare Workforce Enhancement Initiative, a workforce development program for those who have been disconnected from the workforce with the goal of explore careers in the health care field. Its comprehensive model includes professional assessment and training, accreditation, as well as job placement assistance.

“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,” added Pulles.

Today, HCA Healthcare announced multiple HCA Healthcare Foundation grants, through its Healthier Tomorrow Fund, to provide high school students early access to healthcare careers and connect unemployed jobseekers with healthcare career opportunities. https://t.co/97ut7bLuMB.

— HCA Healthcare (@HCAhealthcare) January 25, 2023

Get to know: Healthier Tomorrow Fund

The fund has provided $2.68 million through 21 programs that promote access to healthcare careers. In 2022 alone, the fund awarded $905,000 spread among 15 grants.

Its efforts to promote health education and address the national shortage of nurses and caregivers include:

• 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 creation in 2021, the Healthier Tomorrow Fund has committed $18.3 million in grants to 51 organizations that deliver a positive impact in the communities they serve.