HCA Healthcare Announces $4.8 Million Gift to Help Launch Pepperdine University’s School of Nursing

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, today announced it will give $4.8 million to Pepperdine University to help launch the School of Nursing within the College of Health Science. This is part of HCA Healthcare’s greater commitment to helping address the national nursing shortage.

“We believe that investing in nursing education is vital to the future of healthcare,” said Sammie Mosier, DHA, MA, BSN, NE-BC, senior vice president and chief nurse executive for HCA Healthcare. “It is a privilege to support Pepperdine University’s new School of Nursing as they prepare the next generation of caregivers with the tools, confidence and compassion to care for patients and communities.”

“Through this collaboration, our students will learn how to care for patients in their daily work and how to serve people with their whole lives,” said Dee Anna Smith, chair of the Pepperdine Board of Regents. “We believe this movement will bear fruit in our local communities and across the nation.”

Pepperdine’s School of Nursing opened this fall and currently enrolls 68 students. The school provides undergraduate and graduate nursing degree programs, including a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and an Entry Level Master of Science, Clinical Nurse Leader (ELM-CNL). Applications for Fall 2026 are now open for both programs. As part of their curriculum, nursing students will have the opportunity to complete clinical rotations at HCA Healthcare’s Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California.

This gift contributes to the development of Pepperdine University’s new 30,000-square-foot facility, located on Pepperdine’s Calabasas campus, which includes state-of-the-art clinical simulation labs, high-fidelity patient manikins, and immersive learning environments designed to prepare students in lifelike scenarios.

HCA Healthcare has made significant investments to support nurses and educate the next generation of nursing leaders.

• Since HCA Healthcare purchased Galen College of Nursing in 2020, the college has opened 20 new campuses, totaling 25 campuses nationwide. Today, more than 19,000 students are enrolled, including 4,000 HCA Healthcare colleagues.
• In 2023, HCA Healthcare announced a $34.5 million expansion project for Research College of Nursing in Kansas City, Missouri, supporting the development and building of an HCA Healthcare Center for Clinical Advancement on the campus of Research Medical Center.
• In 2023, the HCA Healthcare Foundation, through its Healthier Tomorrow Fund, announced $250,000 in grants to community colleges and universities to provide high school students early access to careers in healthcare. As part of these grants, Miami Dade College received $50,000 towards its Care Cadre Nurse Exploration Experience and Pensacola State College received $50,000 to help fund the Nurse Explorer Boot Camp. Both programs give students early exposure to careers in nursing.

About HCA Healthcare

Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services comprising 191 hospitals and approximately 2,500 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom. With its founding in 1968, HCA Healthcare created a new model for hospital care in the United States, using combined resources to strengthen hospitals, deliver patient-focused care and improve the practice of medicine. HCA Healthcare has conducted a number of clinical studies, including one that demonstrated that full-term delivery is healthier than early elective delivery of babies and another that identified a clinical protocol that can reduce bloodstream infections in ICU patients by 44%. HCA Healthcare is a learning health system that uses its approximately 44 million annual patient encounters to advance science, improve patient care and save lives.

About Pepperdine University

Founded in 1937, Pepperdine University is an independent, Christian university located 30 miles west of Downtown Los Angeles in scenic Malibu and Calabasas, California. The University enrolls approximately 10,300 students across its flagship liberal arts school, Seaver College; the College of Health Science, and four graduate schools—the Caruso School of Law; the Graziadio Business School; the Graduate School of Education and Psychology; and the School of Public Policy. Pepperdine is committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values, where students are strengthened for lives of purpose, service, and leadership.

All references to “Company,” “HCA” and “HCA Healthcare” as used throughout this document refer to HCA Healthcare, Inc. and its affiliates.