Stanbridge University, with campuses in Irvine and Los Angeles, is led by Yasith Weerasuriya. Stanbridge is an award-winning college that focuses on licensure-based healthcare education, providing programs in Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Nursing, and Veterinary Science. Mr. Weerasuriya has over 20 years of educational executive leadership experience. He went to Irvine Valley College and Wichita State University.
I think that it’s important for people to understand that if they are looking to get into the healthcare field, right now is a great time to do it. Especially in nursing, there are many, many opportunities whether you want to go into hospital nursing or whether you are interested in becoming a nurse administrator, or if you want to open up your own home health care business.
The demand for nurses right now is very, very high. We have lots of students who come into our program that the hospitals recruit. For example, one of our students has just accepted a job with Kaiser Permanente in Costa Mesa at the Queen’s Medical Center. It is a great hospital.
As far as the future of healthcare goes, I think that what we are going to see is the demand for nurses picking up even more so within the next two or three years because people are living longer. The population will increase for older patients between the ages of 80 to 100 years old, and the younger population is also going up.
This means that there will be many more people needing healthcare services. Still, fewer nurses are coming out of nursing schools because it isn’t as popular as other majors like engineering or computer science.
The bottom line is that if you are interested in getting into healthcare, whether it’s being a nurse or becoming a physical therapist or an occupational therapist, etc., right now is a great time to do it.
Why is Stanbridge University Different?
What differentiates us from other institutions of higher learning in the healthcare field? I think that we are very unique; we have many special features. One of our biggest features is that we offer hands-on training.
At Stanbridge University, we have two campuses: one in Irvine and one in Los Angeles. However, the Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy programs are only taught on the new South Campus in Costa Mesa. It’s a very state-of-the-art facility where students have access to a community hospital, an outpatient clinic, and a physical therapy center.
It’s going to open its doors in January 2022. With all of these facilities within proximity to our campus, students can gain hands-on experience, which they wouldn’t be able to do anywhere else.
The other aspect that is different about us at Stanbridge is that we are not-for-profit. We are the only healthcare education institution in California wholly dedicated to training people for licensure. So all of our programs are going to result in a professional license or a certification.
Our students can sit for the licensing exam right after they graduate. They don’t have to go somewhere else and take additional courses, but they come straight to us for this program.
