Bellarmine University and Norton Healthcare announced plans that will expand their partnerships in sports medicine, campus wellness and nursing. This new 5-year, $2.4 million partnership will ensure the health of the campus community while also expanding and diversifying the regional workforce.

Published: February 7, 2022

Bellarmine University and Norton Healthcare announced plans that will expand their partnerships in sports medicine, campus wellness and nursing. This new 5-year, $2.4 million partnership will ensure the health of the campus community while also expanding and diversifying the regional workforce.

This is the largest partnership in Bellarmine’s history.

“I want to thank the Norton Healthcare Board of Trustees for their transformational support of our students over the past two decades and look forward to continuing our partnership for years to come,” said Bellarmine’s president, Dr. Susan M. Donovan. “Together, we are preparing outstanding students to be the great leaders that our future workforce demands.”

“We have had a great partnership with Bellarmine University over the years. We are excited to do more great things together to support not only students and student athletes but those who are working toward careers in healthcare,” said Norton Healthcare President and CEO Russell F. Cox.

Bellarmine will use Norton Healthcare’s $2.4 million investment to:

• Meet the greater level of health support, including additional athletic trainers, required for student-athletes by Bellarmine’s rise to NCAA Division I in 2020. Norton Healthcare will remain the official healthcare provider of Bellarmine University’s Athletics Department, and Norton Sports Health professionals will continue to provide comprehensive care to Bellarmine student-athletes.
• Increase health services and wellness programming for all students. A Norton Healthcare employee will help to staff the Bellarmine clinic; Norton Healthcare will provide eCare services for the campus community; and Norton Healthcare practitioners will be Bellarmine’s preferred referral partners.
• Diversify and increase the number of practice-ready healthcare providers and develop new academic programming. Norton Healthcare will continue to support the Norton Healthcare Chair of Graduate Studies in Nursing and will provide scholarships to students completing the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program, with a preference for those from demographic groups historically underrepresented in nursing. Because the Accelerated BSN is a 12-month program for those who already hold a bachelor’s degree, the funding will result in the graduation of new nurses each year of the partnership.

Norton Healthcare’s partnership with Bellarmine dates to 2002 and the university’s first cohort of Lansing Scholars, whose costs are partially covered by the Norton Healthcare Foundation and who begin their careers at Norton Healthcare upon graduation, where they are eligible to have their loans forgiven.

In July 2009, Norton Healthcare and Bellarmine formed a collaborative nursing venture to further address the community’s healthcare workforce needs. In 2013, that partnership was renewed and a second focus—sports medicine—was added. In 2016, Bellarmine and Norton Healthcare added strategic ventures related to campus wellness.