Community · June 9, 2026
University and Porter County Health Sign a Ten-Year Rural Health Workforce Partnership
The agreement guarantees 120 clinical placements a year, creates a nurse residency for new graduates, and puts a jointly staffed community health worker program in three rural clinics.
UW–Porter Falls and Porter County Health, the regional system that runs Porter County Memorial Hospital and eleven outpatient clinics, have signed a ten-year partnership aimed at a problem both describe bluntly: the county is losing nurses and other health workers faster than it can replace them.
Porter County Health reports about 90 open nursing positions across its sites, and roughly a third of its registered nurses are within ten years of retirement. Porter’s nursing graduates, meanwhile, have often had to complete clinical rotations in Lake City and then taken jobs there.
What the agreement does
- Clinical placements: 120 guaranteed slots a year for Porter nursing, dietetics and rehabilitation students across the hospital and clinics, starting this fall
- Nurse residency: a 12-month paid residency for new Porter graduates hired by the system, with Porter faculty co-teaching monthly sessions in the Health Sciences Center simulation hospital
- Tuition support: up to $5,250 a year for Porter County Health employees completing an RN-to-BSN or a health certificate at Porter
- Community health workers: a jointly staffed program placing trained community health workers in three rural clinics, with Porter students assisting on home visits
The system will also use the simulation hospital for its own staff training two days a month during the summer, when student demand is lowest, and pay a share of its operating costs.
“We were training nurses for every county but our own. Now a student can do her clinicals at Memorial, her residency at Memorial, and stay. That is the only workforce plan that has ever worked in a rural county.”
— Dr. Laura Vance, dean of the College of Health Sciences
“Porter students already make up a big share of our applicants. This lets us meet them in their sophomore year instead of at the job fair.”
— Marguerite Olafson, chief nursing officer, Porter County Health
Placement assignments for fall begin through the existing clinical placement process. Prospective students can learn more about the B.S. in Nursing and the Department of Nursing.
Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Porter County Health, Porter County Memorial Hospital, the agreement and the staffing figures are invented; no real health system is described.