Children’s Hospital Colorado is cutting off its program that offered employees full tuition for certain health care degrees, leaving some staffers scrambling to figure out their next move.
A registered nurse at the hospital who is pursuing a master’s degree in a behavioral health field said she can’t apply for financial aid before the next semester starts in January. While Children’s will still pay employees up to $5,250 a year for tuition, that won’t cover the full cost of her program, which the hospital previously had paid in full, she said.
“They gave us about a one-month notice,” said the nurse, who spoke to The Denver Post on the condition of anonymity over fears she could lose her job. “A lot of us don’t have five, six grand saved to pay for our next term.”
Children’s contracted with a third party to fully pay for some degree programs and partially cover others. The programs the hospital chose weren’t necessarily the cheapest ones, the nurse said, and she doesn’t think she can transfer to a less-expensive school two years into her degree.
Leila Roche, a spokeswoman for Children’s, said when the Aurora hospital conducted its annual benefits assessment, it found that far more people than anticipated had used the full-tuition option. She said the hospital has paid about $11 million for tuition since May 2022.
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