Hospitals pave way for nurses
(Correction: Because of a reporting error, an article in yesterday's Business section about state efforts to ease a nursing shortage implied that nursing degree programs at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Framingham State College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Salem State College offered associate degrees. Those schools offer nursing degrees at the baccalaureate or higher levels.)
When Todd Petrin studies nursing at Middlesex Community College , it's a two-minute walk to class from his job as an eye-care technician at Lahey Clinic in Burlington.
Lahey is among a host of Massachusetts hospitals responding to nursing shortages by making it easier and cheaper for lower-level employees to get nurse training and move up the ladder.
The hospital last year set up a satellite classroom and training simulator lab on the Lahey campus where up to 15 Lahey employees at a time can get instruction toward a Middlesex Community College associate's degree in nursing.
Petrin, 36, an ophthalmology technician, was among the first batch of students and completed his first academic year of training this month. By 2008, he hopes to work as a nurse at Lahey.
Lahey also offers Petrin financial incentives. It is giving him a $10,000 loan toward tuition, which he does not have to pay back if he works at Lahey as a nurse for four years. It also pays him a $1,000-a-month stipend to make up for part of the income he loses while attending school.
Petrin said the combination of convenience and financial assistance, along with career counseling, helped him make the leap into nursing school.
``They held your hand a little, and brought you into the fold, and you say, `Hey, I can do this,' " he said.
Middlesex Community College and Lahey Clinic are also working on a deeper collaboration in clinical, hands-on training programs for nurses. It is part of a broader effort statewide to match hospitals and associate degree nursing schools.
The other collaborations are South Coast Health System with the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, MetroWest Medical Center with Massachusetts Bay Community College and Framingham State College , Baystate Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and North Shore Medical Center and Salem State College.
The state is facing a shortage of nurses and is projected to need an additional 5,000 next year, said Janet Madigan , past president of the Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives . That shortage is expected to grow as baby boomers age to 25,000 nurse s in 2020, she said.
Building relationships between schools and hospitals will be critical to eliminate a shortage of clinical programs that is holding back growth in nursing programs, she said. ``The pipeline is clogged," said Madigan, ``and many, many qualified students are turned away every year."
Lahey, for example, has about 1,250 nurses spread across its suburban network. It has about 700 registered nurses at its main Burlington facility and will need 100 more there next year because of a major construction project under way. Finding those nurses, said Kathleen Jose , Lahey's chief nursing officer, ``is a huge challenge."
Petrin, of Reading, said the flexibility built into Lahey's training programs allows him to attend school and help raise his 6-month-old son while his wife, a public schoolteacher, works full time. He has worked at Lahey for eight years. With the change in career s, he said, he will boost his annual salary from $45,000 a year to potentially double that.
``I'm ecstatic with the help I've received," he said.
Christopher Rowland can be reached at crowland@globe.com. 
