Ivy Tech Community College named finalist for award from the American Association of Community Colleges

Recently, Ivy Tech Community College made the announcement that it has been named as a finalist by the American Association of Community Colleges for an Award of Excellence. The AACC is an advocacy organization for America's community colleges, and presently represents over 1,000 schools and almost 12 million students.

The AACC has been evaluating Ivy Tech Community College in its Outstanding College/Corporate Partnership category due to its partnership with the Indiana University Health system and the Indiana Hospital Association. This collaboration was made in an effort to alleviate Indiana’s current shortage of nurses. The winner of the award will be named by the AACC at the organization’s regular convention in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 8.

In an article posted on Ivy Tech Community College’s website, the school’s president, Dr. Sue Ellspermann, was quoted about the school’s part in ending the nursing shortage, saying, “Ivy Tech’s size and scope across the state allow our institution to play a vital role in solving Indiana’s most urgent economic and workforce challenges, and no challenge has been more pressing than responding to the state’s nursing shortage. Hundreds more skilled nurses are serving in Indiana hospitals and health care settings each year thanks to our incredible partnership with Indiana hospitals, and we are thrilled that this collaboration has been recognized at a national level by the American Association of Community Colleges.”

Dennis Murphy, who serves as the president and chief executive officer of IU Health, and Jason Gilbert, who serves as the president and chief nurse executive at IU Health, co-wrote a letter in support of Ivy Tech’s bid for the award that said, in part, “For decades, IU Health has trusted Ivy Tech to supply our workforce with high-quality, nursing talent needed to serve the millions of patients seen each year within our system. Indiana is projected to need an additional 5,000 nurses by 2031 to meet the growing healthcare demands of an aging population. We could not respond to this challenge without our partnership with Ivy Tech Community College, and we believe our work together in Indiana should serve as a national model for community colleges that seek to partner with health care providers to address the critical nursing workforce shortage.”

Ivy Tech Community College is one of the biggest public postsecondary schools, and is the biggest producer of associate level nurses in the country. Nearly a third of registered nurses in Indiana earned their degree at Ivy Tech. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Ivy Tech had to decline entry to over 300 students from its nursing program, despite them being qualified, largely due to nursing regulations from the state board. IU Health and Ivy Tech then joined a coalition of institutions from around the state led by the IHA to collaborate with the Indiana General Assembly in order to pass House Enrolled Act 1003, which allowed Ivy Tech, and other schools, more flexibility when it came to running its nursing program. This led to Ivy Tech being able to accept more students into the program.

More information about Ivy Tech Community College can be found on the school's website.