The city of Twinsburg and the Kent State Geauga campus are hoping to see double with a partnership between the Kent State College of Nursing and Marymount Hospital, an affiliate of the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, to create an associate degree in the nursing program.

David Mohan, dean of the Geauga campus, will be attending the Ohio Board of Regents meeting Thursday in Columbus to see whether the partnership will be approved. He said he hopes to have the two-year program up and running as early as this fall.

“The focus is on students and meeting student needs,” he said.

The Learning Center at Twinsburg, an extension of the Geauga campus, saw an increase of 150 students within the past two years, and more than 300 students now attend the Twinsburg center, while 700 attend the Geauga campus.

“Twinsburg is Kent State’s best kept secret,” Mohan said. “The mayor and city council are extremely supportive. They want Kent State to have a presence in their community.”

Both the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals in the very near future will open up major hospitals in Twinsburg, Mohan said.

The partnership between Kent State and Marymount Hospital will help ease the nursing shortage by supplying a certified nursing faculty trained by University Hospitals.

The creation of an associate nursing program at Twinsburg will stay completely separate from the four-year bachelor’s degree program at the Geauga campus. Admission to the associate’s degree program will not differ from the bachelor’s degree requirements at other Kent State campuses.

The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals have already bought the land in Twinsburg to start building the health facilities. This will be a benefit to students who choose to attend the Twinsburg Center because clinicals will be provided to them through Marymount.

“Nursing instructors are extremely hard to find,” Mohan said. “They will all come from Marymount, and all clinicals will be at Marymount so you don’t have to search for hard-to-find clinicals.”

With the possible passing of the proposal of the new associate’s degree on Thursday, Mohan said he hopes to start admitting students into the program.

“We will admit 20 individuals as quickly as possible,” he said. “There is already a waitlist for people wanting to get into the program – at least in the range of 10 to 12 that have called in and asked.”

The city of Twinsburg is currently renovating a building for the new nursing program in hopes of the passage by the Board of Regents on Thursday in Columbus. The city plans to have the renovation completed in April so classes can start in the fall, Mohan said.

Marymount is in full support of the new program coming to Twinsburg, and plans are to have them help pay for half of the start-up costs for the first two years, Mohan said.

“This would only be costing Kent State the fraction of the cost,” he said. “This is a unique collaboration with the city and a major medical operative to bring this all about.

“We’re all working together. It’s a perfect partnership to benefit Kent State, Twinsburg and Marymount.”

Contact medicine reporter Celina Hutchens at [email protected].