Responding to a vital need to cultivate the next generation of healthcare professionals, DaVita is actively working alongside nursing schools across the nation to expand opportunities for students and newly graduated nurses. This proactive collaboration comes at a critical time as experts project a national need for more than 900,000 additional nurses by 2030.[1] Meeting the evolving needs of communities requires targeted expertise, particularly in a chronic specialty disease state like kidney care. By focusing on expanding education and offering avenues for nurses to explore career options in nephrology, DaVita seeks to strengthen the future nursing workforce and support high-quality care.

This year, DaVita deepens its commitment to support more aspiring nurses in their career paths by expanding collaboration with Western Governors University (WGU) with the launch of a new course in nephrology available in the Registered Nurse-Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-BSN) and the bridge RN-Master of Science in Nursing (bridge RN-MSN) programs at WGU’s Michael O. Leavitt School of Health (LSH).

"Even as chronic conditions remain prevalent, there’s a lack of awareness about specialties like nephrology. It’s a unique and fulfilling field that more nursing students should be able to access. Through the creation of our nephrology nursing curriculum and the licensing of it by national universities like WGU, we’re meeting the next generation of nephrology nurses,” said Tina Livaudais, RN, BSN, MBA, chief nursing officer for DaVita.

 This nephrology curriculum contains seven modules and provides students with the necessary tools, information and practical experience to enter the nephrology nursing field specialty with a strong foundation in kidney care.

“We need healthcare professionals who understand the prevention and management of kidney diseases to adequately improve public health outcomes,” said Anmy Mayfield, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, vice president and dean for the College of Nursing at WGU’s LSH. “Studies[2] show that 1 in 7 or 35.5 million people in the United States have chronic kidney disease, and it is closely associated with other common conditions, like diabetes and high blood pressure. Also, the country is facing a shortage of nephrology nurses, so to address the shifting demands of the healthcare industry, we’ve collaborated with DaVita and introduced a nephrology course in our nursing programs. This is a step forward to keeping our programs relevant and current as we build a strong pipeline of competent and confident professionals to join the workforce.”

In 2023, the DaVita Giving Foundation awarded WGU’s Leavitt School of Health a $1 million grant to support more than 1,500 nursing students over three years in the Start Early program, co-created by the organizations to help increase nursing degree completions at the university.

The expanded collaboration between DaVita and WGU marks another milestone in DaVita’s long-held commitment to supporting the next generation of nephrology nurses and is also a testament to WGU’s mission of changing lives for the better by creating pathways to opportunity.

“DaVita’s ongoing collaboration with WGU represents our commitment to not only educating new nephrology nurses, but also ensuring they have the resources needed to join the workforce and stay in it for many years,” said Livaudais.