Nashville State Community College receives Rural Healthcare Initiatives grant

Nashville State Community College has received a Rural Healthcare Initiatives from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The grant will facilitate a new partnership between the school and Tennova Healthcare - Clarksville, which will result in a new three-month medical assistant training program available to people in Humphreys, Montgomery, and Stewart counties.

According to an article on Nashville State Community College’s website, Drew Emery, the CEO of Tennova Healthcare - Clarksville was quoted as saying of the new partnership, “We are excited for this partnership with Nashville State’s Center for Workforce Development. The opportunity to provide hands-on training is not only a benefit for the students; we at Tennova Healthcare - Clarksville have the opportunity to enhance our workforce with skilled talent from the middle Tennessee area.”

Tennessee as a whole has been experiencing a shortage of medical assistants, who have taken on more clinical duties when compared to their past more administrative-focused roles. The need for a training program like this, which will have medical assistants workforce-ready in three months, is great, especially in rural counties such as Humphreys, Montgomery, and Stewart. 

The partnership between Nashville State Community College and Tennova Healthcare - Clarksville will result in the training program being offered in the fall of 2025 in Montgomery county. Tennova Healthcare will provide participants in the program with the opportunity to complete clinical, hands-on experiences within Tennova Healthcare facilities, and the healthcare provider will prioritize individuals who have gone through this program in its hiring processes, resulting in a streamlined training-to-employment pipeline for medical assistants. The program will be based on Nashville State Community College’s Workforce Medical Assisting training pipeline, which the college offers in Davidson County.

Speaking of the developments Nashville State Community College has been making in the healthcare training area, including with this partnership and with the current project of a campus expansion that will increase capacity for workforce training, Joseph Johnson, who serves as the executive director of the Center for Workforce Development and Continuing Education at Nashville State Community College, said, “Nashville State has earned its reputation as a trusted leader in workforce education and is well positioned to meet this need, with a strong track record of programmatic retention rates, certification pass rates, and job placement outcomes.”

For more information about Nashville State Community College, visit the school’s website.