Home‑health leaders urge $5 million to grow nursing pipeline for in‑home care

Lisa Von Lemden, executive director of the Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice, urged the House Workforce and Higher Education Committee to back a $5 million statewide investment to strengthen Ohio's home‑health nursing pipeline.

Von Lemden told lawmakers the Center for Community‑Based Care would provide scholarships for LPN, RN and BSN students, fund internships and externships with home‑care agencies, and support mentorship stipends that help agencies retain new graduates. She proposed roughly $2.5 million be directed to colleges for scholarships and about $2.0 million to home‑care agencies to run structured mentorships; she said agencies could receive up to $40,000 per new graduate for the first six months of employment.

Von Lemden estimated the package could support about 200 nursing students statewide over the biennium and described an expected service impact — each trained nurse could case‑manage roughly 30 patients and cycle through about six patient groups a year, ultimately affecting tens of thousands of Ohioans who rely on in‑home services.

Representative Williams and other committee members pressed for more specific spending language; Von Lemden said university partners and the Ohio Department of Higher Education would help allocate scholarship funds and that agency funds would come with conditions limiting their use to mentorship and on‑the‑job training.

The committee discussion focused on how the program would pair classroom learning with short internships or co‑op experiences to expose students to in‑home care, and on oversight by the Department of Higher Education. The testimony did not include a formal budget amendment or vote during this hearing.

The next step for the proposal would be drafting specific budget language and any required eligibility or reporting rules for the scholarship and mentorship funds.