Colleges are filling the need for nurses

The demand for nurses is growing at Ohio’s major health systems and that became more evident last week.

Three Ohio colleges announced they are creating new health care programs to help fill the need for nurses. Employment for nurses, nurse practitioners and related fields is expected to grow 31 percent between 2014 and 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The University of Dayton and Sinclair Community College said they are creating a combined nursing degree. Sinclair students will be able to get an associate degree in nursing and transfer to UD to complete their junior and senior years to get a bachelor’s in nursing, a first for the private Catholic university.

The schools will also have a “1+2+1” program, where students will attend one year at UD, get a Sinclair associate degree for their second and third years and finish their senior year at UD.

North of Dayton, Mercy Health and Bowling Green State University also signed a letter of intent last week to transfer operations of Mercy College of Ohio to BGSU.

Mercy Health, Ohio’s largest health care provider, will serve as a key partner with BGSU and will provide clinical experiences for students and employment opportunities for graduates.

What is ‘rich’ in Dayton?

Being “rich” means something different to most people.

GoBankingRates released a study last week that determined U.S. cities where you can still be considered “rich” earning an income of less than $100,000.

Dayton made the list because of its affordable cost of living.

The study also factored in median home values from Zillow and data from Sperling’s Best Places on grocery costs, utilities, healthcare, and transportation.

Leadership changes expected at Ascend

The leadership at Ascend Innovations, the private medical tech company started by the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association, is expected to change dramatically in the next few months.

Last week, software startup Tangram Flex announced Ricky Peters was its new CEO. Peters was the CEO of Ascend Innovations.

His departure from Ascend closely follows the announcement that Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association’s longtime CEO Bryan Bucklew is leaving for a California position, reporter Kaitlin Schroeder reported.

Ascend Innovations was started in downtown Dayton in a partnership with Cincinnati product design firm Kaleidoscope. The company is focused on the development of technologies and products designed to improve patient care outcomes, intensive data analytics and increasing clinical trial opportunities in the Dayton

gion.

Tangram Flex is a spin out of Portland, Oregon-based Galois, and is located in the Oregon District. Its focus is working with the Department of Defense on making equipment more adaptable.

Peters brings to the role an extensive defense background, including serving as executive director of the Air Force Research Laboratory — the research and technology power- house at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Tangram has 11 employees and is on track to have 15 to 20 full-time employees by the end of the year. The company’s technology makes systems more flexible, making it easier to change and re-pur- pose software systems instead of needing to make time-consuming and expensive changes.