New Chamberlain + Advocate Health BSN: Would You Take a Work Contract for Loan Help?

Image source: Chamberlain University

The nation’s largest healthcare educator and one of its biggest hospital systems are teaming up to give aspiring nurses a funded path from the classroom to the bedside.

On June 29, 2026, Covista and Advocate Health announced a strategic nursing collaboration that pairs scholarships, hands-on clinical training and loan repayment with a direct route to a hospital job.

The program runs through Chamberlain University, the nation’s largest nursing school, and is expected to serve hundreds of students each year. Recruiting is set to begin in July 2026, with the first classes starting in September 2026.

For nurses and nursing students, the pitch is simple: help paying for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, real clinical experience inside a working health system, and a job waiting at the finish line. Here is how it works and why it is landing now.

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What the Chamberlain and Advocate Health Nurse Pipeline Includes

According to Covista, the collaboration is built on four parts: financial assistance to support nursing education, immersive clinical experience in Advocate Health care settings, loan repayment support during Advocate employment, and a direct pathway into the nursing profession. Students will pursue a Bachelor of Science in Nursing through Chamberlain along a specialized Acute and Progressive Care track.

The scale behind it is significant. Advocate Health is the third-largest nonprofit integrated health system in the country, operating 69 hospitals and more than 1,000 care locations with over 150,000 employees across eight states. Chamberlain, part of Covista, enrolls roughly 40,000 students and counts more than 155,000 alumni.

Advocate Health leaders framed the effort as part of a broader workforce strategy. “Our People Forward, Practice Ready strategy is about better attracting, preparing and retaining our nursing teammates,” said Betty Jo Rocchio, executive vice president and chief nurse executive at Advocate Health.

Nakesha Lopez, the system’s chief people and culture officer, said the collaboration “creates a clear pathway for aspiring nurses, from education to employment, with the financial support they need.”

Covista Chairman and CEO Steve Beard tied the model to local staffing needs. “Every community deserves a healthcare workforce built specifically for it, trained in it, rooted in it,” Beard said.

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The announcement lands as hiring pressure across healthcare intensifies. Covista’s Care Capacity Monitor, fielded by Gallup, identified more than 702,000 healthcare job postings a month against roughly 306,000 unemployed healthcare workers available to fill them, a gap the companies say directly affects patient care.

The same research found that 70% of healthcare executives view talent partnerships with educators as an effective workforce strategy, yet only 22% invest in them significantly. This partnership aims to offer graduates employment directly into Advocate’s hospitals through scholarships, clinical training and loan repayment as the nursing shortage worsens.

For working nurses, nursing students and career-changers, this is a workforce development story with practical stakes. Programs that combine tuition support, loan repayment and guaranteed clinical placement lower two of the biggest barriers to entering the profession: cost and the scramble to line up post-graduation work.

Amelia Manning, president of Chamberlain University, noted the school “was built to serve many students from varied backgrounds and circumstances including working adults,” a signal that the pathway may appeal to people balancing jobs and family while they train.

It is worth watching how this employer-funded pipeline shapes the profession. Direct-to-hospital models can ease staffing strain and open doors for new nurses, but they can also come with employment commitments tied to loan repayment, so prospective students will want to read the fine print on service obligations before signing on. As more health systems partner with nursing schools to grow their own workforce, the terms of these deals could influence where new nurses train, what specialties they enter, and how quickly they reach the bedside.

🤔 Would a scholarship-and-loan-repayment deal with a required work commitment be worth it to you? Tell us in the comments below.