Dartmouth-Hitchcock currently has more job openings than some of the state’s other biggest companies have employees. Many of those 1,000 vacancies are in roles that are critical to patient care, including nurses, nurse’s assistants and lab technicians.

There’s no easy fix for the problem, but the medical center is banking on a major investment in education to fill its pipeline in the years to come. Dartmouth-Hitchcock announced on Friday that it plans to invest up to $3 million in Colby-Sawyer College’s health science programs over the next several years. The New London college, which has been collaborating with the medical center on the plan for several months, will use the money to expand its nursing program and add several new offerings, continuing its shift in focus toward medical careers.

“We have designed these programs specific to (Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s) needs,” Colby-Sawyer President Sue Stuebner said in a telephone interview on Friday. “As we look at the landscape of where there are jobs for students, the health care service industry is one where there’s a strong need.”

The first installment of the investment, totaling $750,000, will fund three initiatives announced earlier this year and being rolled out this fall. One component is a new associate’s degree in health sciences, open exclusively to current Dartmouth-Hitchcock employees. It’s designed to help entry-level health care workers take the next step in their careers.

“It’s really aimed at helping retain employees at the hospital,” Stuebner said.

The second component is an expansion of bachelor’s degree programs in health care sciences. In the fall, the school will offer bachelor’s degrees in five new disciplines: addiction studies, health care administration, health science, medical laboratory science and social work. At the same time, administrators hope to increase enrollment in the school’s nursing degree program by about 15 students next year. Over the next 10 years, they hope to increase enrollment from 45 to 125, Stuebner said.

Finally, the school will add a nursing leadership and nursing education track to its master of science in nursing program. Those programs, like the associate’s program, are designed to give Dartmouth-Hitchcock employees more career advancement opportunities, Stuebner said. However, she expects they’ll attract both Dartmouth-Hitchcock employees and the wider population.

A shortage of qualified nursing faculty is exacerbating the nursing shortage. Nursing schools around the country turned away 75,000 qualified applicants in 2018, according to the American Association of Colleges and Nursing. It cited an inadequate number of nursing faculty — along with a lack of classroom space, clinical sites and funds — as reasons for the shortage.

In order to qualify for the next round of funds, the college will have to meet the goals laid out for the first round, Stuebner said. That will require recruiting new students to the school in an era of declining enrollment.

“We’re pretty confident the demand will be there,” she said. “We’ve always had really high demand for our nursing program here.”

Dartmouth-Hitchcock had its own nursing program, the Mary Hitchcock Memorial School of Nursing, from 1893 to 1980. Colby-Sawyer opened its bachelor of science in nursing program in 1981 and has been a pipeline for Dartmouth-Hitchcock ever since. More than 80% of its nursing graduates secure employment at Dartmouth-Hitchcock.

The new investment will fund several teaching positions — the number has not yet been determined — as well as academic support, technology and marketing, Stuebner said. Both the associate’s degree and master’s degree programs will likely have a large online component to cater to working students, she said.

Tuition, room and board at the four-year college is about $58,000 per year, but the average student pays $25,000 to $27,000, Stuebner said. The school gives about $25 million a year in financial aid.

The new programs are another step in the college’s efforts to reinvent itself after struggling with a $2 million deficit. In 2016, the liberal arts college cut five majors — English, philosophy, accounting, health care promotion and health care management — and laid off 18 employees. Last fall, the school announced that it had met its enrollment goal of 292 students for the class of 2023, as well as increasing its enrollment of New Hampshire students by 26%.

That focus on New Hampshire fits with Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s goals as well, said Aimee Giglio, chief human resources officer for the medical center. To fill critical roles, her team currently has to rely on contracts with short-term, traveling nurses. The collaboration with Colby-Sawyer is one way of building a workforce with strong roots in the community, she said.

“We’re always asking, ‘how do we bring people to our state and retain people?’ ” Giglio said.

Sarah Earle can be reached at searle@vnew.com or 603-727-3268.