De Anza College in Cupertino has received a $1.08 million gift from a donor to the Community Foundation Silicon Valley which will enable the college to train 66 additional nurses over the next five years.

Most hospitals in the Bay Area face an acute shortage of nurses. Stanford Hospital hires expensive contract nurses to fill slots in its nursing staff.

"This will mark a significant step forward in addressing the shortage of nurses in Silicon Valley hospitals," said Martha Kanter, Foothill-De Anza Community College District chancellor.

De Anza currently has room to accept only 24 nursing students a year, although it gets about 250 applications for those positions annually. The region's colleges currently produce 224 nurses each year to fill 615 local nursing jobs that become vacant each year.

— Don Kazak