When Minnie Washington arrived for her first day of work in HCA Houston Healthcare Conroe's cafeteria 30 years ago, she had no idea that she’d one day be a leader in the nursing field, helping to guide a team of nurses through a pandemic.

While serving on the hospital’s food and nutrition services team, Minnie was inspired by the nurses around her and worked her way through school using HCA Healthcare’s tuition and student loan assistance programs.

"I wanted to get a job where I could make a difference,” Minnie said.

She studied and became a certified nurse assistant (CNA), continued going to school to become a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) and eventually earned her registered nurse (RN) credentials. She now holds Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degrees, and has served as a nurse supervisor, manager and director.

HCA Healthcare is proud to support the educational goals of our colleagues and their family members. In 2021, more than 13,800 colleagues participated in our student loan assistance program, which has helped with more than $59.2 million in student loan payments since 2018 (as of Dec. 31, 2021). In addition, approximately $40 million is reimbursed to colleagues annually through our tuition assistance program. For eligible dependents of HCA Healthcare colleagues, the HCA Healthcare Foundation’s Patricia Frist Memorial Scholarship Program provides merit-based higher education scholarships of up to $5,000 a year. In 2021, 588 recipients received scholarships totaling more than $2 million.

In May 2021, HCA Healthcare also announced a $10 million investment over the next three years to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) across our footprint to advance diversity in healthcare.