Chamber Magazine

By Eniola Longe | Inside Indiana Business
Read more of Eniola’s coverage by subscribing to the Inside INdiana Business South Bend/Elkhart Region Report.

The North Central Indiana Healthcare Talent Alliance is entering a new phase as it transitions leadership to the South Bend Regional Chamber, marking a key step in the region’s effort to strengthen the health care workforce pipeline.

Formed in 2022, the alliance brings together educators, employers and community organizations to coordinate solutions to a growing shortage of nurses and other health care professionals. What began as a pilot convened by Indiana University South Bend has grown into a sustained regional coalition now preparing for long-term governance and expanded programming.

The handoff to the chamber will allow it to move from research and planning into full-scale implementation. Leaders say the partnership will connect employers’ needs with education and training systems, helping to retain local talent and prepare students for health care careers in the South Bend–Elkhart region.

“We’re the only public university in the region and we see ourselves as a convener to get things incubated and off the ground,” said Elizabeth Paice, chief of staff at IU South Bend. “The chamber really has the capacity and history to run with this.”

Paice explains why the Chamber handoff was essential.

IU South Bend initially funded a contract with enFocus to study local health care workforce needs, joined by contributions from Saint Joseph Health System, Beacon Health System and Oaklawn. The group’s first 18 months focused on feasibility, gauging community interest and defining what a successful partnership would look like.

By early 2024, roughly 15 organizations were meeting regularly. The alliance hosted its first major event last spring, connecting regional college students with health care professionals for mentoring conversations rather than a traditional career fair.

An IU South Bend senior interning with Paice’s office, led the planning for the inaugural “Health Careers for Future Graduates.” The student was hired full-time by one of the alliance’s partners upon graduation. One of the enFocus leads also accepted a role with Beacon after working on the project.

Next year, the alliance will add K-12 programming through partnerships with Job Spark in St. Joseph County and Career Quest in Elkhart County, coordinating hands-on activities that expose younger students to health care careers. Members are also developing leadership development programs to support retention for existing health care professionals.

“We are continuing the college student engagement programs and looking to expand it beyond St. Joe into Elkhart County,” Paice noted. “So even though the South Bend chamber has taken it on, it is a multi-county project.”

Beacon Health System has been an active partner in the effort to align education and workforce needs. Pamela Morrison, Beacon’s workforce development program manager, said the alliance supports collaboration across recruitment, training and exposure to health care careers.

“Beacon sees this as a resource for creation of talent pipelines and alignment in strategy for how we’re building these types of experiences,” Morrison said. “Whether that means corralling people together for recruitment events or even just finding ways to work through what the state of Indiana has done with the high school requirements on dual credit options.”

Beacon and Ivy Tech Community College launched the Beacon Scholars Program in 2022 to expand registered nursing capacity. The program pays full tuition and provides living stipends for students in exchange for a three-year post-graduation employment commitment.

“In the housing market, there’s the buyer’s market and the seller’s market,” Morrison explained. “Right now, it’s definitely the graduating nurses market; they have so many choices.”

The first Beacon Scholars graduated in 2023, joining the hospital system as either full-time or part-time nurses. The partnership has helped fill critical vacancies and provides experienced nurses with an interest in teaching to successfully pursue both careers. Since 2022, 127 students have graduated from the Beacon Scholars Program.

“We’ve got four full faculty members that do the hybrid obligation between Ivy Tech and Beacon,” Morrison said. “That offers them the opportunity to be paid at a slightly different wage scale than a traditional academic nurse. So, it’s a win-win-win-win.”

The alliance has also strengthened relationships among employers who might otherwise compete for talent.

“This talent shortage affects us all in different ways,” Morrison said. “If we don’t all approach this together, we’re going to disable one another really quickly.”

Education is a key part of the solution. Ivy Tech’s South Bend–Elkhart campus currently offers 90 seats in its Associate of Science in Nursing program and will add 20 more in 2026. The school also provides training for licensed practical nurses, medical assistants, dental hygienists, respiratory therapists and surgical technologists.

“We’ve been hearing that the real shared pain point starts with registered nursing talent,” said Amber Ruszkowski, Ivy Tech South Bend-Elkhart vice chancellor of Career Link and community partnerships. “We’re focusing on stabilizing and shoring up that pipeline while also thinking bigger about entry-level and mid-level health care careers.”

The employer-led model follows the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Talent Pipeline Management framework, which uses data to project workforce demand and guide educational programming.

Ryan Boeskool, the South Bend Regional Chamber’s director of strategic partnerships, said the chamber will formalize governance and launch official meetings in January.

“The primary purpose is to address the deficit that the community has in nursing candidates,” Boeskool said. “We are in desperate need for more nurses and that need is only going to increase.”

Ten organizations have already committed to serve on a 15-member steering committee. Each will contribute $5,000 annually to fund the alliance’s operations.

“Our education partners are the solution in the equation,” Boeskool said. “Employers lead the conversation about what they’re going to need in the future and those job projections help inform our educational institutions on how to model their programs.”

The effort also reaches into entry-level health care training through partners like Legacy Medical Academy, which provides certification for Certified Nursing Assistants and Qualified Medication Aides.

Legacy trains both adults and high school students across the region, partnering with six area schools and serving nearly 400 students annually in pre-nursing pathways.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity to align our efforts in the region,” said Matt Presley, president of Legacy Medical Academy. “We can be intentional about how people navigate through them to find meaningful work in health care.”

With 10,000 Americans turning 65 over the next five years, the Indiana Hospital Association projects that the state would need 5,000 additional nurses by 2031. For alliance members, the collaboration represents a collective step toward solving a regional workforce challenge that no single organization could address alone.

“This challenge is bigger than any of us can tackle by ourselves,” Paice said. “The only way we’re going to make progress is if we put our heads and resources together and work on this together.”

The steering committee also includes Saint Joseph Health System, the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership and other partners.

Reprinted with permission.