Signing a contract with a hospital to pay for tuition

[Swanie D]

Hello, thank you for your time. I am currently a high school biology and ap teacher. My degree is in biology and over 5 years old so I am having to retake micro 1 and 2 as well as a statistics class and psychology course. I am recently divorced and I had heard of signing a contact with a hospital in exchange for tuition and job placement? Is this a possibility? I think this would be a great way for me to go. I would be starting as a junior and have a other BS in nursing within 2 years or less.

[Herrington]

I've heard of this as well. I went to the hospital I'm seen at and spoke with their learning resources department. They said that yes, they do offer it, but you need to have been accepted into nursing school and be employed with the hospital already (not sure if that includes being employed while in nursing school, or at the time of signing the contract or what), and even then, they said that they only select very few people for it.

I would speak to the learning resources department of the hospital you're looking to do that with and see what their requirements are. It's a pretty sweet deal, but I can well imagine it's competitive like no other.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Those kinds of programs are few and far between these days. I have a friend who just completed 'paying off' such a deal - and she is looking for another job pronto. And as the AP said- it's usually reserved for existing hospital employee.

[Dranger]

Lol good luck finding that kind of deal anymore. New grads are lucky to even find a job let alone a hospital job that pays for their entire degree.

[Swanie D]

Thanks y'all,

I had a feeling that it might be too good to be true. Thank you much for the generous feed back.....Swanie D

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I encourage you to contact rural hospitals with this idea. This type of arrangement is not uncommon for those organizations - especially in areas where recruiting outsiders is challenging. I know of two NPs and a physician who had their graduate/med school education funded by their home town hospitals in exchange for coming back to practice in town.

[UVA Grad Nursing]

These types of arrangements (to become a RN) were more prevalent a decade age when there was a nursing shortage. Nowadays, there are more new grads than jobs in hospitals in 48 of the 50 states (the last data I saw indicated that only Nevada and Alaska had more entry-level jobs than graduates).

HouTx is correct that this type of program still exists for some graduate specialties. I know of rural hospitals in my state that have paid for graduate degrees for a CNS with heart surgery expertise, for NICU NP training, or for a hospitalist ACNP certification. But these are highly specialized certifications for individuals who have a BSN and several years of RN practice already.

[nolanurse88]

The hospital I work for offers it but you have to already be an employee there and excepted into the program. They also only pay for a portion of the tuition not the whole thing and if you are part time it's even less. I'm still trying to figure out how working full time and going to nursing school is going to even work.

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

From what I understand some hospitals will pay for you to get your BSN once you have your ADN and you are working there. I have not heard of a place where you show up and say hey I want to work here but I have no degree or experience so would you be willing to pay for it? If you have to start over at the beginning it won't be 2 years until you graduate. It would be at least 3 or more with the prereqs. It's 2 years once you get in the program.

[RunBabyRN]

It's pretty uncommon nowadays. Back when there was a nursing shortage, you could find this arrangement much more easily. Even getting tuition reimbursement seems to be disappearing now.