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EDINBURG — Twelve Rio Grande Valley College nursing students signed letters of intent and donned white coats at a ceremony July 10, marking the beginning of the Registered Nurse Apprenticeship Program. The initiative, which is aimed addressing the ongoing nursing shortage, is a joint project of Rio Grande Valley College and DHR Health.
The program approved by the Texas Board of Nursing in April will be integrated into the college’s existing Associate Degree Nursing program. The student apprentices will work 24 hours a week under the supervision of nurse preceptors at DHR Health. A $1 million grant by the Texas Workforce Commission will financially support the apprentices as they complete their college education.
“Our students struggle financially as they attend school,” said Dr. Annabelle Palomo, President and CEO of RGV College. “All of us who have attended nursing school ask, ‘How do you make ends meet and yet meet your clinical hours?’ That’s where this initiative comes in with DHR.”
“I’m very thankful to the DHR administration who decided along with Dr. Palomo to bring this program here,” said DHR Health Rehabilitation Hospital Medical Director Dr. Saroja Vishwamitra. “With programs like this we don’t have to recruit nurses from all over Texas. We have them right here in our own back yard.”
Brenda Cantu of Peñitas is among the 12 nursing students making up the first cohort of the program, which is one of only two in the state of Texas. The other is at Vernon College in Wichita Falls.
“I graduated as an LVN from RGV College in December,” Cantu said. “As soon as I finished I applied for the ADN program, which I’m doing now. It’s going to help me because when I graduate I will already have a year of experience with hands-on training.”
Palomo says a similar partnership with UTRGV is currently in the works. For more information on the nursing apprenticeship program at DHR, visit www.dhrhealth.com/careers.
