Second degree nursing program

WNCC Nursing Program Expanding, Enhancing Rural Component

In the coming year, Western Nevada Community College will significantly expand its highly regarded associate degree nursing program to help alleviate the critical shortage of nurses in western Nevada. For the fall 2004 semester, the college anticipates admitting 48 new students to the program, including eight students who will receive much of their instruction at the WNCC Fallon campus. The newcomers will join 39 current first-year students who are expected to be entering their second year next fall.

Thanks to a cooperative effort between WNCC, Banner Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon, the Northern Area Health Education Center in Elko (a division of the University of Nevada School of Medicine), Nevada Rural Hospital Partners, and others, WNCC has just opened a state-of-the-art nursing instruction lab in Fallon and hired another full-time nursing instructor for the program. The result will be facilities and faculty to allow for expanded instruction in rural Nevada, and the hope that rural students will be interested and ready to fill them.

Most nursing courses are taught at the WNCC Carson City campus. However, since 1993, students have been able to complete the lecture portion of some courses via interactive video at the Fallon campus and at teaching centers in Hawthorne, Lovelock and Yerington. Clinical and lab instruction had to be completed in Reno at Washoe Medical Center or at Carson-Tahoe Hospital in Carson City.

Charles Myers, chief executive officer at Banner Churchill Hospital, says the new lab and expanded nursing program is a great example of community-wide cooperation.

"It shows what can happen when people and organizations work together," Myers said. "All of these entities WNCC, the hospital, our auxiliary group, the county, Nevada Rural Hospital Partners - all contributed to creating this lab and the rural nursing program, which will be developing much-needed registered nurses for western Nevada's rural communities."

The 2,500-square-foot lab has classroom and office space, and three well-equipped examination rooms, including computerized simulation mannequins that allow students to hear lifelike sounds from throughout the body.

Dr. Steve Carman, WNCC biology and physical sciences professor and chair of the Division of Science and Allied Health, says, "Students need to be well-prepared and comfortable with their skill when they go to work in a hospital. Well-equipped facilities like the new nursing lab in Fallon ensure that students will make the transition from classroom to clinical settings comfortably."

For more information on the WNCC nursing program visit the WNCC Allied Health Division Web site at www.wncc.edu/alliedh.

Submitted by the Nursing Dept. of Western Nevada Community College