College of the Desert’s nursing expansion shows how investment in local education can strengthen healthcare access, business growth and the Coachella Valley economy
A recent GPS Market Intel special report underscored the importance of healthcare as a major Coachella Valley industry – one that supports jobs, household income, business activity and the region’s ability to grow.
Healthcare is sometimes discussed primarily as a public service or community need. It is both of those things. But it is also essential economic infrastructure.
Employers across every industry depend on a functioning healthcare system to recruit and retain workers. Families consider access to care when deciding where to live. Older residents and seasonal populations create additional demand. Healthcare organizations purchase goods and services, invest in facilities and employ workers across a broad range of occupations and income levels.
The industry’s strength, however, ultimately depends on the strength of its workforce.
Sarah Fry, Director of Nursing and Allied Health and Acting Dean of Mathematics and Sciences, College of the Desert.
During an interview on the Desert Healthcare District and Foundation’s Healthy Desert, Healthy You podcast, Sarah Fry of College of the Desert brings that economic reality to life. Fry, COD’s director of nursing and allied health and acting dean of mathematics and sciences, described how the College and its regional partners have expanded nursing education – and why enrolling more students is only the beginning of what must become a sustained workforce strategy.
Her message should command the attention of healthcare employers, business leaders, public agencies and regional decision-makers: The Coachella Valley cannot sustain one of its most important industries without building, supporting and retaining the local talent required to operate it.
A measurable return on local investment
COD has more than doubled admissions to its registered nursing program, increasing capacity from approximately 45 students per semester to 100. That creates the potential to admit about 200 RN students each year.
The expansion grew from the Healthcare Workforce Leadership Roundtable, a collaboration involving COD, the Desert Healthcare District and Foundation, OneFuture Coachella Valley, healthcare employers and other regional partners.
The participants started with a practical question: What would COD need to educate more nurses?
Partners listened to the answer and invested in the capacity required to respond. The result was not another study or statement of intent. It was a measurable increase in the number of students preparing to enter one of the valley’s most critical industries.
COD recently pinned 91 registered nurses in the largest RN graduating class in the College’s history. The ceremony filled the McCallum Theatre with graduates, families and supporters.
The more consequential numbers during Fry’s podcast interview were highlighted when she said that approximately 90% of COD nursing graduates remain in the Coachella Valley to work, and about 93% are employed within six months of graduation. Those are not simply measures of academic performance. They are indicators of economic return.
Every graduate who stays in the valley represents a hard-to-fill position that can be filled locally, a household earning and spending income here, and a professional who contributes to the regional healthcare system’s capacity and continuity.
“We are a community college. We are serving our community,” Fry said. “We want them to stay and work in our community.”
From an industry report to a workforce imperative
The GPS Market Intel special report helps establish why these outcomes matter beyond COD or any individual healthcare provider. If healthcare is to be treated as a foundational regional industry, workforce development cannot remain a collection of disconnected programs, grants and employer recruitment efforts.
The valley needs a functioning talent supply chain.
That begins with career awareness in middle and high school. It continues through dual enrollment, prerequisite courses, certificate and degree programs, clinical education, employment and opportunities for advancement. It must also include multiple entry and reentry points for adults changing careers or returning to education.
COD currently serves approximately 450 students across its nursing and related health programs. Its pathways include certified nursing assistant, home health aide, licensed vocational nursing and registered nursing, along with an advanced-placement option that allows LVNs to become RNs.
The College also works with high school health academies and offers dual-enrollment courses that allow students to begin completing nursing prerequisites before graduating. Some students who participated in those early pathways have already entered COD’s LVN program.
Fry described this as an “ecosystem of access,” a connected system that meets students at different stages and gives them more than one route into a healthcare career.
That concept has direct economic relevance. Industries do not grow by waiting until a position becomes vacant and then beginning a search for a qualified applicant. They grow by developing a visible, dependable pipeline of people who can explore careers, acquire skills, enter employment and continue advancing.
The next constraint belongs partly to employers
COD has demonstrated that it can expand nursing education when regional partners provide the resources. But the College cannot build or sustain the entire workforce system by itself.
Every additional nursing student requires access to clinical education. That means hospitals, medical groups, skilled-nursing facilities, clinics and other healthcare providers must offer placements, identify qualified preceptors and make experienced personnel available to help educate future professionals.
Those commitments can be difficult when organizations are already managing vacancies and heavy workloads. Without them, the education pipeline eventually reaches capacity.
Employers also determine what happens after graduation.
Compensation matters, but retention also depends on scheduling, workload, supervision, workplace culture, professional development and the quality of a new nurse’s transition from student to practitioner. A graduate who enters an understaffed workplace without adequate mentoring may quickly become another vacancy.
Fry cited industry data indicating that as many as 25% of new nurses may leave within their first two years.
“We can continue training as many as we want, but if we can’t retain them, then there’s a bigger problem that we need to address,” she said.
That is a warning for the entire region. Expanding educational capacity while failing to improve early-career retention is like increasing production while ignoring a break in the supply chain. The system may produce more graduates, but it won’t create the stable workforce the industry needs.
Reducing dependence on imported labor
Traveling nurses provide essential flexibility during emergencies, staffing surges and temporary shortages. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they helped healthcare organizations respond to extraordinary circumstances.
But temporary staffing should not replace a permanent regional workforce.
Travelers generally do not provide the same long-term continuity, accumulated institutional knowledge or sustained economic contribution as professionals who live and build their careers in the community.
“We have so many travelers that we’re hiring for our own positions when we could be investing in our community to grow our own,” Fry said.
The “grow our own” strategy is especially compelling when local students already show they want to stay. If about nine out of 10 COD nursing graduates stay in the Coachella Valley, then investing in their education produces benefits that are much more likely to stay in the regional economy.
Locally educated healthcare professionals are also more likely to understand the communities they serve. They bring family connections, cultural knowledge, language skills and a personal stake in the valley’s future.
For employers, that can translate into greater workforce stability, stronger community relationships and less reliance on expensive temporary recruitment.
Scholarships are part of the talent supply chain
The Healthcare Workforce Leadership Roundtable supported scholarships for nursing students. Those scholarships should be understood as more than traditional financial aid.
Nursing education is academically rigorous and includes demanding laboratory and clinical requirements. Many students cannot maintain full-time employment while completing a full-time program. Without financial support, qualified students may reduce their course loads, interrupt their education or leave before earning a credential.
Scholarships give students the stability to persist and become workforce-ready professionals.
For a healthcare employer, foundation or public agency, the return is tangible. A relatively modest investment can help a local resident earn a credential and fill a hard-to-fill position for years to come.
Scholarships are therefore part of the industry’s workforce infrastructure. So are faculty, laboratories, simulation technology, clinical placements, preceptors and programs that support students as they move into employment.
If healthcare is a vital economic sector, those investments should not depend entirely on short-term grants or episodic philanthropy. They require multiyear commitments tied to workforce demand and measurable results.
Preparing people for a changing industry
Fry also described how healthcare work is changing.
Patients increasingly present with multiple conditions, higher acuity and more complex treatment needs. Technology is embedded throughout care. Nurses must interpret information, recognize problems, communicate effectively and exercise sound clinical judgment.
Education can no longer focus primarily on whether students can memorize information or complete a procedure. They must develop critical thinking, emotional intelligence, confidence and the ability to make decisions in collaboration with physicians and other professionals.
COD’s faculty helps connect education to current industry practice. Fry estimates that approximately 90% of the College’s nursing faculty continue to work in bedside or clinical settings, bringing current experience into the classroom.
That relationship between educators and employers must deepen as patient needs, technology and models of care continue to evolve. Programs need timely information about emerging occupations, changing competencies and anticipated vacancies. Employers need confidence that graduates are prepared for the realities of contemporary practice.
Both sides benefit from treating workforce development as a continuing partnership rather than a transaction that begins when a graduate submits a job application.
The business community has a stake
Healthcare employers have the most direct role, but the broader business community also has a stake in the outcome.
A region without sufficient healthcare capacity will struggle to accommodate growth, support an aging population and compete for workers. Businesses cannot easily recruit executives, professionals or families to a community where access to care is uncertain. Existing employees are affected when they or their family members face long waits, limited specialties or difficulty finding providers.
Healthcare workforce development is therefore not a narrow concern reserved for hospitals and educational institutions. It is part of the Coachella Valley’s overall economic-development agenda.
Employers outside healthcare can support career awareness, scholarships and employee education benefits. Business organizations can use their influence to keep workforce development among the region’s priorities. Philanthropic institutions can invest in lasting capacity rather than isolated activities. Public agencies can align funding with clearly identified workforce gaps and measurable outcomes.
Moving from expansion to sustainability
The GPS Market Insider special report makes the economic case for recognizing healthcare as a critical regional industry. Fry’s interview shows what acting on that recognition looks like.
It looks like students beginning healthcare coursework in high school.
It looks like multiple pathways that allow residents to enter the workforce, earn credentials and advance.
It looks like regional partners helping COD more than double RN admissions.
It looks like scholarships that let students complete demanding programs.
It looks like employers providing clinical placements, preceptors, mentorship and working conditions that encourage new professionals to remain.
And it looks like measuring success not only by the number of students enrolled, but by the number who graduate, find employment and build lasting careers in the Coachella Valley.
The region now has proof that coordinated investment can expand the local healthcare workforce. The next step is to make that investment sustained, strategic and large enough to match the economic importance of the industry it supports.
College of the Desert can educate more workers. It cannot create the entire workforce system alone.
Healthcare employers, business leaders, public agencies and philanthropic organizations must decide whether they will remain occasional participants or become long-term partners in building the talent pipeline.
The Coachella Valley’s economic vitality depends on the answer.
Bob Marra is the CEO/Publisher of GPS Business Insider and GPS Market Intel. He has been studying, writing and giving presentations about business, economic and public affairs news and issues and the local economy in the Greater Palm Springs/Coachella Valley region for more than 20 years.
