Investing in Your Career Growth and Development

At Cottage Health, our people are the reason we excel. We rely on the contributions, creativity and skills of our employees and we invest in them for the long-term. In addition to competitive compensation and benefits, we believe in supporting our employees as they advance in their careers.

With programs for continuing education, certification bonuses, tuition reimbursement, and other education and research opportunities, Cottage Health makes it easier for employees to pursue education and training opportunities that develop their professional skills and competency.

We also recognize lifelong learning is an essential component to achieving excellence in patient care, medical research and community service.

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is the largest private teaching hospital on the California coast between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. With Graduate Medical Education programs in surgery, radiology, pediatrics and internal medicine, we care for diverse patient populations in both outpatient clinics and hospital settings.

Education Assistance Program

In conjunction with the Cottage Health (CH) Educational Benefits Plan ("Plan"), the Education Assistance Program provides financial support to employees of Cottage Health who are actively pursuing further education in a degree program at an accredited college or university. Education Assistance is available for employees enrolled in nursing, respiratory therapy, laboratory, radiology or therapy services programs. Assistance for other degrees and certificate programs may be available based on organizational need and are approved on a case by case basis.

To request an Education Assistance Program application please email CHEducationAssist@sbch.org

Certification Bonuses and Tuition Reimbursement

At Cottage Health, you’ll be rewarded for your accomplishments for professional milestones. Certification bonuses that are not a minimum requirement of the job, are available to incumbents in senior licensed, certified or difficult to recruit positions in clinical or medical job classifications. We recognize licensed/certified clinical staff who have acquired certification in order to advance their professional education and maintain current expertise by providing quality clinical care. Cottage Health provides up to $1,000 for each nationally recognized initial certification received and $500 for re-certification. All active regular full- and part-time benefit eligible employees working in eligible clinical positions for the last 6 consecutive months are eligible for a certification bonus.

In addition to certification bonuses, Cottage Health offers regular full-time or part-time benefited employees tuition reimbursement for the cost of classes and books required for approved educational courses, conferences, CEUs or degree programs up to $1,000 a year for full-time or $750 for part-time.

Cottage Leadership Development Program

The Cottage Leadership Development Program (LDP) provides Cottage employees an opportunity to expand their professional and leadership capacity. The one-year program consists of nine curated classes offered by Santa Barbara City College and the department of Learning & Change.

Throughout the program, LDP participants can expect to be equipped, engaged, and empowered as they consider the role of leadership in their professional journey. At the conclusion of the program, participants deliver a capstone presentation where they share about the application of the LDP experience to their role at Cottage.