Hunting for workers, Hackensack Meridian seeks to funnel them from Monmouth University

WEST LONG BRANCH - Hackensack Meridian Health has announced a sweeping partnership with Monmouth University that is designed to provide health care students — from nursing to social work — with access to training and jobs.

As part of the deal, Hackensack Meridian will team up with Monmouth to roll out wellness programs for students. And the health care company will receive the naming rights for a student wellness center expected to be part of a proposed expansion of the OceanFirst Bank Center, the campus arena scheduled to open in 2026.

"I think these kinds of partnerships are really an important part of our future because I honestly don't see the health care (labor) shortages that we are experiencing today getting better anytime soon," Robert C. Garrett, chief executive officer for Hackensack Meridian, said in an interview. “So it's important that universities and health systems like HMH work together."

Edison-based Hackensack Meridian is one of the state's biggest health care companies with 36,000 employees at 18 hospitals, including Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel and Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank.

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The agreement with Monmouth is designed to give the health network an edge recruiting graduating students, helping it chip away at a labor shortage that is dogging the health care industry. New Jersey, for example, anticipates a shortfall of 11,400 nurses by 2030, a federal government report found , in part because the giant baby boomer generation is retiring and will need more care.

Monmouth University President Patrick Leahy said the partnership should help the school attract students and bolster allied health programs such as nursing, occupational therapy and behavioral health by providing more clinical experience.

"We just decided that in order for Monmouth to enhance and elevate and expand its allied health programs, we needed a strategic partnership," Leahy said. "We have no shortage in interest in our applicant pool, but the constraint to filling more of those seats is often the accrediting bodies' requirements that there are clinical placements."

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The agreement includes:

• Academics. An academic placement coordinator from Hackensack Meridian will work full-time at Monmouth's Marjorie K. Unterberg School of Nursing and Health Studies to find clinical and non-clinical opportunities at the health system.
• Access. Monmouth students and employees can go to Hackensack Meridian's urgent care centers in Eatontown and Neptune when the school's health center isn't open.
• Community health. Hackensack Meridian and Monmouth will collaborate to create wellness programs on campus. The health system will have its name on a new student wellness center that is expected to have 22,745 square feet of health and fitness space, including upgrades to the school's sports medicine facilities.

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The two organizations declined to provide details about the financial terms.

Hackensack Meridian has tried to increase the pool of health workers by founding its own medical school and signing affiliations with other colleges. But its agreement with Monmouth marks the first time the health system will have an academic coordinator on site, Garrett said.

The health network is "trying to be as creative as possible in attracting these young professionals to our health network, whether that's some tuition forgiveness or other types of incentives to hopefully entice them to at least give HMH a chance," Garrett said.

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Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter with the Asbury Park Press who has been writing about the New Jersey economy, housing market and health care industry since 1999. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Hunting for workers, Hackensack Meridian seeks to funnel them from Monmouth University