HAP Achievement Awards: Meadville Medical Center

August 07, 2026

HAP's annual Achievement Awards honor hospitals and health systems for their innovation, creativity, and commitment to patient care. The Achievement Awards showcase and share member hospitals’ and health systems’ successful programs and best practices.

Meadville Medical Center received the Workforce Innovators Award for spearheading a hospital-based nursing school to restore local nursing education and build a nursing pipeline in rural communities.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The challenge:  The closure of two long-standing regional nursing schools threatened the local nursing pipeline and deepened workforce concerns in a rural community already facing barriers to care.
• Addressing the Issue:  Workforce data and regional trends revealed that recruiting from outside the area would not be enough; the region needed accessible, affordable nursing education close to home.
• Taking Action:  Rather than relying only on outside recruitment, the hospital created its own nursing school with practical and registered nursing programs, offering flexible, affordable pathways that kept classroom learning and clinical training close to home.
• Results:  The practical nursing program graduated its first cohort within 18 months, achieved a 100% pass rate among graduates who tested, and placed nearly all graduates in local health care jobs.
• Advancing Care:  By keeping nursing education rooted in the community, the program helps ensure rural patients have access to the caregivers they need, reinforcing the belief that “strengthening the nursing workforce begins with access to high-quality, local education—and that the health of the community depends on it.”

Congratulations to Meadville Medical Center for its outstanding efforts to strengthen the health care workforce and transform care delivery. Learn more about the project online.

Questions about the HAP Achievement Awards may be directed to HAP Member Services at (717) 561-5359.