UNMC and Columbus Community Hospital have signed a master affiliation agreement that will provide enhanced education and training opportunities for UNMC health professions students. It will allow the institutions to work collaboratively when building the health care workforce in the Columbus area and the surrounding region.
This latest agreement further enhances UNMC’s statewide impact as it works to build the future workforce and deliver health care and health care education throughout Nebraska. It is continuing in its commitment to expand the state’s rural health workforce in critical areas, said Nicole Carritt, UNMC director of rural initiatives and assistant vice chancellor for health workforce education relations.
“Columbus Community Hospital has been a great partner,” Carritt said. “It has gone above and beyond to ensure students have a great learning experience while on their rotations. We are interested in using this agreement as a springboard to even more collaborations. We hope to expand educational programs on the UNMC-Kearney campus and increase the number of health professions students interested in living and providing health care in the state’s rural areas.”
Under the new and enhanced agreement, students from programs including allied health, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health will have the opportunity to participate in clinical training opportunities at Columbus Community Hospital.
“Over the years, we have had a great collaborative relationship with UNMC,” said Michael T. Hansen, president and CEO of Columbus Community Hospital. “We thoroughly enjoy the many students we host every year during their rural rotations here at CCH. By signing the master affiliation agreements for both clinical and non-clinical students, we streamline the process and ensure that our mutual interests are perfectly aligned.”
“We continue to see severe health care workforce shortages across many disciplines — from physicians and nurses to medical lab technicians, pharmacists and many others” said Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, chancellor of UNMC. “Strong educational experiences in our communities, such as the ones provided at Columbus Community Hospital, are integral in growing the state’s rural health workforce. We are excited at the possibilities this new agreement opens up.”
Carritt said, “As UNMC works to improve the health of people across Nebraska, partnership and innovation is in the best interest of the student, community and state. With the agreement, we are building on an already impactful partnership, and we thank the leaders and clinicians of Columbus Community Hospital for this continued collaboration.”
Columbus Hospital has a long history of connecting on UNMC infection control grants, emergency preparedness exercises with HEROES, and supporting our nursing students. So glad to see this formalized. Nice work.
UNMC Radiography students have called CCH their home base for both the didactic and clinical components of their professional curriculum for many years with great success! The program, with the CCH partnership, has demonstrated strong outcomes in attracting local, prospective applicants by providing them with the ability to learn a profession and meet a workforce need, all while staying in their home community. The partnership has been a win-win for all!
We have been trying to make in-roads with Columbus Hospital in Ophthalmology, and now this formalizes the relationship that we can build in this specialty.
Columbus Community Hospital has a history of providing excellent care to Columbus and the surrounding communities. UNMC having a formal partnership with CCH will increase benefits for patients and families, as well as care teams and students!