St. Tammany Health System leaders were joined on Jan. 21 by local education stakeholders and government officials to cut the ribbon on the St. Tammany Academic Center, a free-standing education facility in Covington designed to train the region’s next generation of healthcare professionals.
“Education, training, coaching, and mentoring have always been part of who we are at St. Tammany Health System. It is embedded in our core philosophy,” St. Tammany Health System President and CEO Joan Coffman said. “Today, we enter into a new realm of education that speaks directly to our mission.”
The result of an ongoing partnership between the health system, Southeastern Louisiana University, and Northshore Technical Community College, the nearly 12,000-square-foot facility – which welcomed a new class of nursing students this month – is grounded in continuing education, workforce development, and career growth and advancement, Coffman added.
With its five classrooms, two skills labs, and four hospital simulation rooms – all outfitted with financial help from donors to St. Tammany Hospital Foundation – the facility will cater to students at various levels of the healthcare spectrum. That includes those enrolled in an accelerated nursing program through Southeastern, two cohorts of NTCC students working toward associate degrees in science and nursing, and additional educational offerings including a component designed to reach interested high school students at Covington’s St. Scholastica Academy.
In addition to providing students an opportunity to earn needed skills without leaving western St. Tammany Parish, the center was designed to bolster the local healthcare workforce, providing a direct pipeline of talent to St. Tammany Health System and other local healthcare organizations.
The center will also cater to current St. Tammany Health System colleagues interested in furthering their healthcare education.
The St. Tammany Academic Center is located at 71040 Louisiana 21, just south of St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital. Learn more about it at StTammany.health/AcceleratedNursing.