Big Bend College celebrates new nursing center

$130,000 project to provide more space, improved facilities for program

MOSES LAKE — Big Bend Community College officially celebrated the opening of its new nursing center Tuesday with an open house and tours of the new facility.

BBCC board of trustees members, BBCC faculty and visitors from around the community came for the event.

The building has been open since September, moving the nursing program from an old dental clinic two blocks east of campus to the 1700 building which used to house the campus library.

"The nursing program was moved with the primary intent of providing additional instructional space to expand the program," said Kara Garrett, dean of education, health and language skills at BBCC in a statement released from the college. "We couldn't grow in the building we were in."

The $130,000 project, funded from state capital project monies, includes three large classrooms, seven faculty offices, a student lounge, medication room and campus skills lab. Inside the lab, a nurses station, patient beds and a private patient room allow students to practice hands on nursing techniques using mannequins and medical supplies.

In 1963 the nursing program began after the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and the Washington State Board of Practical Nursing approved start up of the program.

As the growth of Moses Lake and surrounding communities increased, health care agencies in the Basin began to request that BBCC implement an associate degree program. Due to the large number of nurses at that time, the Nursing Commission of Washington State denied the approval and suggested that BBCC become a satellite of an already existing program.

That was when BBCC formed a partnership with Columbia Basin College. The satellite program began in the fall of 1984.

It wasn't until the spring of 1999 when the nursing faculty at BBCC began considering the creation of its own associate degree nursing program. After completion of a needs survey to identify if such a decision would be beneficial, it was determined it would be in the best interest of the college's service district to offer its own program.

In the fall of 2000, BBCC received permission from SBCTC and the Washington State Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission to develop a program. In the 2002-2003 school year the college graduated its first associate degree of nursing graduates.

Faculty remember changes throughout program

When Linda Wrynn and Marsha Asay started working in the nursing program at BBCC in 1981, there were only three faculty members.

Today there are six nursing faculty.

Textbooks and mannequin dolls were the main resources used for teaching students in the 1980s, the majority of which were female and wore white starched caps and gowns.

Those uniforms have since been replaced with blue scrubs and white medical coats worn by the 48 students currently in the program, six of whom are men.

For five hours each Monday Asay lectured to her students from a textbook and classroom charts.

"We didn't have anything but a picture and a book," Asay said of the classroom materials available to her.

Out in the hallway of the nursing center, display cases house old medical supplies once used in the nursing profession. A kettle for heating water for heat packs and a glass syringe are a few of the items on display.

They no longer use glass but plastic syringes, Asay says with a chuckle as she looks at the outdated supplies.

In a world where technology has changed the way almost all industries operate and train their employees, more and more nursing students are being taught the basics of human anatomy and patient care through computer simulated programs.

"Technology has been a double edged sword for us, it has given us a lot of opportunity, and yet there's a lot of work involved in taking that technology and actually transporting it into a classroom and using it to teach students," Wrynn said.

A prime example of the latest technology is the SimMan, a life-size model of a human patient with the ability to test students clinical knowledge and decision-making skills. The SimMan can simulate a variety of patient conditions from a bad cough to cardiac arrest.

Currently, the college is fund-raising money to pay for the $30,000 SimMan.

Aside from shifts in technology, shifts in the demand for trained nurses have affected the development of the program.

When Wrynn and Asay started at BBCC, nursing was one of the only opportunities available to women aside from teaching.

Wrynn believes that as more work place opportunities have been opened up for women they are looking to other professions with potentially better pay, which is one reason the nation is facing a nursing shortage.

The latest nursing shortage has been present for seven or eight years and continues to worsen, Wrynn said.

However, the small size of the program at BBCC in combination with a variety of clinical sites at both large and small hospitals throughout eastern Washington keeps the program competitive.

College administrators are considering offering new programs on a rotating basis such as medical assistance, X-ray and surgical technician, said Wrynn.

Nursing program draws

students from

diverse backgrounds

Before entering into the nursing program at BBCC, student Charles Adams had worked nine years as a medical lab technician in the Air Force.

While watching the evening news one night, a report disclosed that there was a shortage of nurses in the health care field.

That's when he decided to pursue a career in nursing.

It has taken three years for Adams to get where he is today, now a first year student in the nursing program at BBCC. The first two years he spent completing his prerequisites so he could get into the program.

With the new nursing center complete at BBCC, there is one aspect of the facility Adams is going to enjoy the most.

"Space," he said. "That's the biggest thing."

Classmate Tina Johnson also enjoys the added space of the facility, including the campus lab.

Johnson decided to study nursing after being employed at a nursing home.

Working with people in a health care setting was more rewarding for Johnson than at her previous places of employment which she held at a daycare and a Kmart store.

While a single parent with few marketable job skills, LaDonna Sokolowski considered herself to be a nurturing person who enjoys taking care of people. That was a skill she knew could be useful in the nursing profession. Sokolowski is now in her first year of the nursing program.

In the field of nursing today Sokolowski says the skills required of nurses means they have to be more aware of cultural beliefs as they relate to health care practices.

Nurses have to have an understanding of how other people view death and treating disease, Sokolowski said. "Wherever you go now there is a melting pot of cultures."