BAYADA teams up with York Tech, offers $600,000 scholarships to address nursing shortage – WBTV
ROCK HILL, S.C. (WBTV) – This week, BAYADA — a home health care non-profit — announced a new partnership with York Technical College to address nursing shortages in the state.
The home health care leaders in York County say that they’ve seen a nursing shortage across South Carolina for some time and an increased need for in-home pediatric care.
They’re hoping that this new partnership will encourage more people to come into this field.
Gabrielle Dunlap works for BAYADA while also attending York Technical College to get a degree for nursing. She says she wanted to pursue the degree to help people.
“Knowing that I can leave with helping somebody or just being an impact on somebody’s life — even if it’s just educating, which is what you know we practically do right now,” said Dunlap. “It makes me feel good to know that they trust me enough to listen to me.”
Dunlap is exactly the type of professional that BAYADA is looking for in its new partnership with York Tech. The two are working to educate and train students who want to become nurses through a new apprenticeship program. BAYADA has granted $600,000 in scholarship funds to help students. The goal is to fill a gap in the need for families across the area.
Jenni Cairns is BAYADA’s Rock Hill Office director.
“There’s been an increase of children who need our help,” said Jenni Cairns, BAYADA’s Rock Hill Office director. “There’s lots of people moving here, the community’s growing, and I’m noticing that we are really struggling to keep up with the amount of referrals that are coming in. We could at any time have 10, 12 referrals on our board that we are unable to accept because of staffing issues.”
They are hoping the partnership will bring around 40 nursing scholarship students to the home health care company. By working part-time with BAYADA, students get hands-on training in pediatric nursing, personal care, and adult private duty nursing. They’re looking for people who have a passion for the important work.
“You’ve got to come in knowing that you’re going to somebody’s home, you’re going to take care of them there and you’re gonna become part of their family,” said Carnis.
Dunlap says the experience has taught her a lot. “It’ll help you withing your nursing career. Because you’re seeing these things while you’re working but you’re able to put the things that you study on paper into real life, and it makes more sense that way.”
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