A strategic partnership to promote health, wellness, access, equity and career growth
Hartford HealthCare (HHC) and Quinnipiac University (QU) announced a unique, university-wide strategic partnership focused on building the healthcare workforce of tomorrow and growing student pipelines across a wide range of industries that will address long-term talent needs for the state and beyond. The two organizations’ collaboration centers around three core areas: redefining healthcare education, providing our university community with high-quality, coordinated health and wellness services, and developing and growing the state’s workforce. Hartford HealthCare will make an investment in QU and the future of the state’s healthcare workforce through a $5 million philanthropic commitment to the university over five years.
Redefining Healthcare Education
HHC will work with QU to develop a variety of programs and educational and workforce opportunities spanning the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, including the development of a high-tech training and simulation laboratory on QU’s North Haven campus for state-of-the-art, hands-on training. Here are examples of some school-specific areas of collaboration:
School of Medicine
Create more opportunities for students of QU’s Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine in both undergraduate and graduate medical education, including:
- Develop new sites for clinical placement of students across a variety of HHC clinical sites.
- Partnership with HHC to recruit additional clinical faculty.
- Expand upon HHC’s and QU’s existing residency training programs in Internal Medicine and Radiology by establishing surgical residency training at St. Vincent’s Medical Center.
- Establish new residency programs in Psychiatry and Family Medicine.
School of Nursing
Grow much-needed nursing talent through new educational offerings and job opportunities both as students are pursuing their degrees and after graduation:
- Development of a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program, which begins during undergraduate studies and offers employment as student nurse techs within HHC during a student’s graduate work and continues after successful completion of the program.
- Clinical rotations at HHC for participants in a new Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program that is being developed.
- Expanded employment opportunities at HHC locations for graduates of various nursing programs.
School of Health Sciences
Advance student research, scientific, ethical and administrative perspectives that are needed to thrive in health sciences fields, including:
- New Ambulatory Surgery Center rotations for Physician Assistant students.
- Increased clinical placements for Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy students.
- Exploration of additional acute and post-acute social work opportunities, and many others.
High-Quality and Coordinated On-Campus Healthcare Services
Implement a comprehensive set of coordinated health services for all members of the Quinnipiac community, with a best-in-class unified electronic health record:
- Quinnipiac will use Hartford HealthCare’s Campus Care program to provide high-quality, coordinated health and wellness services to manage students’ complete care needs – physical and mental well-being as well as athletic training for the university’s Division I athletes.
- Access to expanded services including counseling, adult health and athletic training.
- Pharmacy delivery from St. Vincent’s community pharmacy to the QU campus medical office to support prescription needs.
- Integrated care through HHC’s advanced electronic medical record, so all students who engage with health services will have their health records accessible through MyChartPLUS.
Workforce Development and Growing Student Pipelines
Address current and future talent shortages across industries by building college-to-career pipelines that provide real-life experience, keep graduate talent in-state, and encourage upskilling and lifelong learning for those already employed:
- Create a leadership development program with QU’s School of Business to educate developing leaders, from individual contributors to senior executive and physician leadership.
- Practicums, internships, or research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate programs across QU’s 8 schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. We are discussing a Computing Fellows program within our School of Computing and Engineering, for example.
- Opportunities for QU students to participate in HHC’s Graduate Administrative Internship Program and Administrative Fellowship Program.
- Facilitation of learning and upskilling opportunities for HHC employees, volunteers and their families, including a tuition discount benefit for HHC colleagues and their dependents.