Spokane Community College is launching a nursing program in Stevens County, hoping to address an ongoing nursing shortage.
“This is a pathway to real career opportunities without leaving,” said Jaclyn Jacot, Spokane Community College’s vice president of instruction.
Over the past year, Spokane Community College has been working to launch a nursing program in Colville, with the goal of creating an additional career opportunity for students located in northeastern Washington. This, she said, would allow students to pursue a healthcare profession not too far from home and increase the number of nurses in rural communities.
Jacot said the college anticipates launching the program in July 2026.
“I feel like our practical nursing program, being able to offer that in Colville is just one of many possible steps to give people living-wage jobs,” Jacot said.
She said the nursing program will be located on the east side of the Colville campus' main building in a classroom that's been in general use for the past 20 years.
The program will accept four students per year based on clinical site space, with the potential of going up to eight, all of whom will have the opportunity of working with nearby hospitals to get additional experience.
“We are looking primarily at Mount Carmel in Colville and St. Joseph's in Chewelah, both Providence hospitals. We are also talking to Ferry County Hospital in Republic,” Jacot said.
Zane Gibbons, chief nursing officer at Ferry County Hospital, said they had been looking for solutions for nurse staffing after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed their local healthcare shortage, when the idea got presented.
"We really heavily rely on travel nurses now," Gibbons said. "We probably have, at all times, maybe a fifth to a quarter of our nursing staff being travel nurses; sometimes more."
According to a 2022 Health Workforce Analysis published by the Health Resources and Services Administration, Washington is projected to have a 26% nursing shortage by 2035.
Much of the workforce shortage comes after burnout and high levels of emotional exhaustion during the pandemic and post-pandemic, according to a report from the Washington Center for Nursing.
Gibbons said Ferry County Hospital is interested in pursuing a nurse tech program. This would allow students to work full-time at a hospital, while still going to school.
Once they have completed their studies, it's more likely they'd stay in the area, he said.
"We're trying to look at five to 10 years down the road and solve, 'How do we generate more students for these smaller hospitals that will stay there and remain nurses in those communities?' And I think that this is a good step," Gibbons said.
Jacot said another option is to have nursing students do clinical rotations across Spokane, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties so they can have an array of experiences across different hospitals.
"I think when students are interacting with a clinical instructor or a lab instructor who they know works at the local hospital or works at the local care facility, that helps them see themselves in the jobs, because they see this person who's not driving up from Spokane, but who's working in their community, doing that work," she said.
Brent Purvis, work-based learning coordinator at Colville High School, said a nursing program this close to Colville and nearby rural communities will have a positive impact for youth who are looking to go into a healthcare profession.
Last year, he said Colville High School piloted a partnership with Providence Mount Carmel for a certified nursing assistant certificate program.
Purvis said they had six students, five seniors and one junior, in the program.
“Some are looking at this as just sort of an introduction to their healthcare career, and maybe going to go for a nursing degree or into a four-year program... some went right in and got jobs this summer, and wereworking as a CNA,” Purvis said.
Purvis added having to drive down to Spokane can cause financial and time barriers for students. This would allow them to save money and continue to pursue their studies.
"Bringing programs to our community for these young people is very, very important," Purvis said.
