Health committee approves nursing and allied‑health education center plan, endorses OU partnership and scholarships

The Cherokee Nation Health Committee voted to advance the Cherokee Nation Nursing and Allied Health Education Center and Endowment Act of 2026, a multi-part proposal to repurpose the old Hastings Hospital into a nursing and allied‑health education campus.

Chief Hoskin described the plan as the Nation’s largest health‑education investment and said the project aims to create a pipeline of clinicians returning to serve the Cherokee people. "This will enable us to go further very quickly with our discussions with the University of Oklahoma," he said, adding that the center would help LPNs transition to BSN programs and could support future MSN and instructor development.

Committee members discussed the types of allied‑health programs under consideration, including medical laboratory professionals and radiology technologists, and raised the instructor shortage as a bottleneck for expanding nursing programs. Health staff said the partnership with the University of Oklahoma is intended to address that bottleneck by increasing the number of BSN‑prepared nurses and potential instructors.

Chief Hoskin referenced an endowment through the Cherokee Nation Foundation to fund scholarships and career services. Transcript remarks included dollar-figure references that appeared garbled in committee remarks; financial specifics and final endowment amounts were not fully detailed during the committee discussion and will be resolved in subsequent council review.

The committee approved the item on a roll‑call vote, recorded as 16–0 with one member absent. The measure will move to full council under special rules for final action.