Nursing at HCA Healthcare
Nurses are the heart of HCA Healthcare. We are actively implementing and offering resources, development and education to support nurses in their day-to-day work. We’re making strides in our nurse recruitment and retention efforts. This commitment helps more than 99,000 HCA Healthcare nurses today while contributing to shaping the future of the profession.
Investing in clinical education
and training for nurses
In 2023, HCA Healthcare announced more than $300 million in investments to support the education and training of nurses through the opening of new HCA Healthcare Centers for Clinical Advancement and the expansion of Galen College of Nursing.
Our 14 Centers for Clinical Advancement are designed to help nurses advance their skills and careers. New nursing graduates use the centers to complete their Nurse Residency program while veteran nurses can earn advanced certifications. The centers’ specialized manikins simulate real-life scenarios nurses may experience at the bedside, and leading technology allows students to learn from clinical experts across the country, record their simulations to play back scenarios and debrief with colleagues and facilitators to further advance their learning.
In addition, HCA Healthcare’s partnership with Galen College of Nursing aims to increase access to nursing education, enhance the nursing pipeline and provide additional nursing career development opportunities for our colleagues. Galen has opened 14 new campuses nationwide since joining HCA Healthcare in 2020. In 2023, Galen was named one of the National League for Nursing’s Centers of Excellence™.
HCA Healthcare and the HCA Healthcare Foundation have made other significant investments to support nurses and educate the next generation of nursing leaders. In January 2023, the foundation announced $300,000 in grants for community colleges and universities to provide high school students early access to careers in healthcare. Learn more about the foundation’s work.
Recruitment and retention
In 2023, HCA Healthcare recruited more than 116,500 colleagues, including 37,500 bedside nurses. We also made significant progress with employee retention and reduced turnover through training, issue resolution and targeted investments intended to help colleagues do their best work.
37,500
bedside nurses recruited in 2023
Unit of Distinction
HCA Healthcare nurses share an unwavering commitment to caring for their patients and supporting each other. Each year, HCA Healthcare celebrates exemplary nursing units across our organization at our Unit of Distinction Awards. The Unit of Distinction is achieved through measurable, exemplary performance in the strategic areas of advocacy and leadership, consistency in nursing practice and operations and leveraging scale to improve patient care.
The Unit of Distinction program represents a piece of the larger Professional Practice pillar of our nursing strategy. This pillar focuses on nurse-driven metrics (nursing sensitive indicators) to ensure delivery of high-quality care:
- Pressure prevention and falls prevention practices
- Leveraging national designations to promote nurse engagement and drive outcomes
- Magnet Recognition and Pathway to Excellence and nursing research to provide a continuous commitment to advancing knowledge
- Knowledge Center and Ovid Discovery (HCA Healthcare Library).
“Each year we look forward to celebrating the selfless individuals who continually show up for our patients across the country,” said Sammie Mosier, chief nurse executive of HCA Healthcare. “The Unit of Distinction program celebrates HCA Healthcare’s many exemplary nursing units and raises our standard of nursing excellence every year. Congratulations to this year’s winners.”
License renewal
Continuing education is a critical part of nursing practice, and that’s why HCA Healthcare has invested in the Continuing Education Unlimited library. Our nurses have access to more than 1,800 courses on an expansive range of topics to help them stay current in practice. HCA Healthcare clinicians leveraged the CE Unlimited library to earn more than 1.7 million CE credits in 2023.
Dynamic care teams
We introduced new roles to help support nursing workload including licensed practical nurses (LPNs)/licensed vocational nurses (LVNs), nurse externs, paramedics and patient care technicians (PCTs). The goal is to support our nurses by allowing care teams to assume appropriate tasks. Our nursing workforce has grown to include over 3,600 LPNs/LVNs, 5,750 nurse externs and 11,700 PCTs.
Care models have helped us to increase our census and availability for the community. Several of the LPNs which have started with us have enrolled in RN school and are advancing their degrees with the support of HCA Healthcare.
Damanda Marshall
Med/Surg Director, Wesley Medical Center
Walk in Your World
We regularly seek input from HCA Healthcare nurses to help implement effective changes and identify opportunities to deliver better care to our patients. Through our annual Walk in Your World event, executive and senior leaders from across the enterprise shadow nurses and care teams to experience first-hand their process of delivering compassionate care to their patients. These events provide executive leaders with key insights and themes to provide better support and resources for our care teams and facilities.
We deeply care about our nurses’ insights and ideas to better our organization and patient outcomes. That’s why we seek their input and listen to their suggestions. Through our commitment to shared governance and regular engagement surveys, nurses across the organization help drive decisions affecting patient care and nursing practice.
Sammie Mosier
Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive