Chance Nadritch had no intention of turning into a nurse. He was studying accounting at the time. He thought he was pretty good at it, but he would be the first to admit that numbers aren’t really his thing. Then his grandmother had a heart attack that killed her. He was there when it took place. A nurse saw it first and told the doctors what was wrong before they could even look at her chart.
Everything changed at that moment. Nadritch changed his major and went to St. John Fisher University. He later got a job in the cardiac intensive care unit at Rochester General, the same hospital where his grandmother had been treated. That was last year, when he graduated from the University of Buffalo School of Nurse Anesthesia. His student loans were worth $165,000 at the time. He’s not now. It was paid off by Rochester Regional Health working with Clasp, a group that helps people with student loans.
The program, which is part of what RRH calls a “targeted loan-support initiative,” helps Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists pay off their student loans by up to $180,000. Techs who work in radiology can get up to $30,000, and techs who work in surgery can get up to $25,000. That’s not the same thing as a scholarship or grant. Students must apply while they are still in school, give Clasp information about their loans, and then find work at a participating institution like Rochester Regional Health. Once they’re hired, they’ll start getting paid. For Nadritch, the application process was like a 10-minute phone call. They linked his account. That was it.
In this case, the timing doesn’t seem to be by chance. On July 1, the federal government made a lot of changes to student loan policies. For example, the SAVE Plan repayment option ended, and graduate students can no longer borrow as much. Because of new federal laws, the most you can borrow from the federal government for professional degree programs is now $200,000. For other graduate programs, the most you can borrow is $100,000. That’s a big gap for someone who wants to become a nurse anesthetist, a program that often goes over those limits. RRH and Clasp are putting themselves right in the middle of that gap.
The Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at RRH, Charlene J. Wilson, has been clear about what this program is all about. This is retention. It is a pipeline. Across the country, younger doctors and nurses are moving around more freely, staying shorter, and leaving their jobs faster than those who came before them. “We recognize that Generation Z and millennials aren’t staying as long as the baby boomers did,” Wilson said. It’s simple math to figure out that the fewer clinicians who leave, the fewer open positions patients will find when they need surgery, imaging, or anesthesia care.
Beyond the numbers, this program is important to watch because it shows that health systems are starting to rethink how they invest in their employees. Usually, a hospital hires someone after they graduate. In order to get ahead, RRH is building relationships with students two to three years before they start working. Clasp is looking for students who will be graduating in 2026, 2027, or 2028. It’s still not clear how many students will go through this pipeline in the end or if the rates of student retention will be high enough to justify the long-term costs. But it’s hard to argue with the points of view.
Nadritch can already see the real-world effects. “Having this debt-free position gives us an opportunity to buy a house,” he stated. A year ago, he and his wife, who is also a nurse, would not have thought possible what the future holds for them. At Rochester General, he works with his brother, his cousin, and the husband of his cousin. His family has a long history with medicine. For a while, it looked like the debt would get worse.
RRH isn’t doing this because they want to help everyone. The three jobs that are being looked at are those of CRNAs, surgical techs, and radiologic techs. These are the people who make operating rooms and imaging departments work. A surgical technologist is needed for every surgery. It is not safe to give anesthesia without a CRNA. There is nothing wrong with the program being both a support system and a way to get people to work. The two goals don’t go against each other. When done right, they rarely are.
