Grant Expands Innovative Program for International Nurses

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:22:31 PST

A successful program to prepare international nurses to work in the United States is expanding thanks to a $30,000 grant from the Northwest Health Foundation. The grant was awarded to the Workforce Improvement with International Nurses (WIIN) program at Clackamas Community College to develop a collaborative relationship with Clark College’s nursing program.

WIIN is designed to prepare registered nurses who received their credentials in other countries to become licensed and return to work in the U.S. WIIN was developed and launched in 2004 through support from the Northwest Health Foundation (NHF). Since that time, 62 nurses from 27 countries have graduated from the program.

Despite a growing immigrant population, Oregon and Washington are facing a shortage of qualified bilingual nurses. Among these legal immigrants are many health care professionals with education comparable to nurses in the U.S. The WIIN program, which has received national and international attention, improves the quality of life for its graduates and the quality of care for patients.

A year ago, through support from the NHF, CCC began collaborating with Washington State University-Vancouver to provide WIIN students the opportunity to pursue graduate education to increase the diversity of nursing faculty in the area.

For more information, contact Judith Anderson, WIIN instructor, at 503-594-0698.