Cal State Long Beach and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center/Miller Children's Hospital have entered into a five-year, $15 million partnership to allow the college's nursing students to be taught at the hospital.

The partnership will allow CSULB to double its number of nursing students and produce an additional 300 nursing graduates in the next five years.

"It's a big step certainly for Cal State Long Beach and Memorial/Children's,' said Byron Schweigert, CEO of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital. "And ultimately I think it's going to help solve the nursing shortage in this state.'

Nursing students will be taught by university and hospital faculty at the medical center, where they will be able to use a nine-bed simulator lab now being built. The simulator will allow students to train in a realistic environment.

Students will be able to practice on the Human Patient Simulator, a full-sized mannequin run by a computer to mimic the human body. The mannequin will blink, breathe, speak, and have a heartbeat and pulse. It will respond realistically to CPR, ventilation, catheterization and other procedures.

The hospital is offering to pay for nursing students' tuition and books in return for their working at the hospital for two years after becoming registered nurses. Students are free to decline the offer.

The year-round program will allow nursing students to complete the nursing component of their bachelor's of science in nursing in two years instead of the current three.

The program is needed to address a severe nursing shortage straining hospitals, said CSULB President Robert Maxson. California ranks second-to-last in the nation in the number of registered nurses per capita. Many nursing schools, including the one at CSULB, are filled to capacity.

"There's an acute problem, and I think (the deal) lets two institutions work together to resolve that,' Maxson said.

"If Memorial was a university, it would be called one of the best universities in the country,' he added. "(The deal) lets us join with a first-rate health facility.'

The deal will give Long Beach Memorial badly needed registered nurses. Long Beach Memorial/Miller's Children's Hospital has 1,300 nurses on staff, but has 150 positions open for additional nurses.

"I think it's going to be a tremendous benefit to us to have the nurses get clinical experience in the setting where ultimately they will be working,' Schweigert said. "They will get to know the staff, get to know the equipment.'

As part of the arrangement, Cal State Long Beach will contribute $5 million and Memorial will give $10 million. Classes at Long Beach Memorial and Miller Children's begin today.