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Nursing program maxed out
Germanna deals with tight fiscal times and no direct stimulus funds
Date published: 4/1/2009
By PAMELA GOULD Greta Haggerty has a dozen nursing students in her wellness program but because of space constraints, can only allow half of them in the consultation area at a time. Even then, students are squeezed into a room so small they can meet with just a handful of patients per day. "Space is definitely an issue," said Haggerty, a clinical instructor in Germanna Community College's nursing program. Germanna's program for practical and registered nurses is enrolled to the max and interest is skyrocketing. Located on the Locust Grove campus in eastern Orange County, the nursing program has an increasing number of students who already hold bachelor's degrees as well as those who started training while still in high school. More than 1,000 people are in the "pre-nursing pipeline" this year, taking their prerequisite courses with hopes of getting into the program, said Jane Ingalls, dean of nursing and health technologies. That's a 68 percent increase in four years, a 25 percent increase in the past year. Germanna President David Sam said he would love to double the size of the nursing classes but with a lack of funding for buildings and staff, his ability to meet the region's needs is stymied. The federal stimulus bill provided no funding to Germanna. And with diminishing state funding, he's unable to create new programs to meet the area's need for health care professionals, develop programs for technology training or begin construction on a third building at the Fredericksburg campus that would provide needed laboratory space. With one hospital opening in Stafford County two months ago and another under construction in Spotsylvania, demand for nurses and other health care professionals is high, both Sam and Ingalls said. And with the nation in the throes of a dreadful economy, more people are turning to community colleges for help, as they do any time the economy falters. People are looking for a bargain to begin their higher education, are trying to retool their skills or are seeking to develop new skills to start a new career. "Community colleges are engines of turning the economy around," Sam said. The question is how effective the engine can be without additional fuel.
Date published: 4/1/2009
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