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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2010)
2 The Clackamas Print Wednesday, Oct. 13. 2010 Nursing grant to explore partnershij By Brian Baldwin Associate News Editor Imagine if you were, to be handed a check for $30,000. What would you do with it? That’s exactly what happened to the Workforce Improvement with Immigrant Nurses program at the Clackamas Community College Harmony campus. The Northwest Health Foundation has given the WIIN program here at CCC a $30,000 grant to explore, design and carry out a partnership with Clark College that hopefully will allow more nurses to be able to join the program. The WIIN program will now be in its seventh year of existence. According to the WIIN program director at Harmony, Judith Andersen, the program will have had over 60 nurses from other countries graduate and be recertified to work in the United States. The five-term program is small by design and the average class size is around 12 students. “The $30,000 was given to us to' see if we could expand the numbers we have by work ing with a sister institution in Washington state, Clark College, so that we could split up the group for skills and for different labs that require intensive one-on-one instruction from the instructor,” said Andersen. So why choose Clark College for this part nership? Most of the nurses that come into the program apply from Washington, so it helps to stay local. Also when some of these nurses come into the program, they find that they have deficits in certain areas. “Their program might have been acceptable by the Board of Nursing, but they didn’t have a psychiatric mental health component. So we can’t say to them, ‘Well just go downstairs and take the psych mental health class.’ They don’t have it anymore. So we started out working with Clark because they still have separate classes,” said Andersen. This also is not the only grant that the program has received this year. The WIIN program received a Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership Grant to help them set up a prep class for the Test of English for International Communication as this test is one of the biggest hurtles that these nurses face for recertification. Most hospitals are still on a hiring freeze for new nurses. It is because the older nurses that would have retired in the last few years have not retired due to the economy, according to Andersen. They stay on lon ger because they might need more money or their spouse doesn’t have a job to offset their retirement. Andersen doesn’t think that recertifying foreign nurses will contribute to the oversaturation of nurses, as hospitals are in need of bicultural and bilingual nurses. “The Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has mandated that by ... three years from now that hospitals (will) show that their nursing staff reflects the population that they serve,” said Andersen. As the college continually gets its budget reduced by each state economic forecast, it is possible that we will see more of these types of partnership bonds. “We are definitely exploring those options! community colleges as their funding is also str We are trying to identify which courses (we J and who has which courses at which campiT perhaps we can tap into,” said Joanne Truesdell lege president. » f Currently both WIIN programs have set me in November and a joint review session in Dec to iron out the plan of who will teach which j in this partnership. ANDERSEN Financial woes stretch budget thin; grant office desir roughly $2.5 million down coming into this year in revenue, it changes w we think long term about where we need to restructure the college.” “There are instructional positions we’re not filling. There are just J things that we’re doing that aren’t ideal, but are necessary given thefi« Last spring a proposal to reintroduce a grants office was constraints we face,” said Courtney Wilton, vice president of college serw Sources of opportunities are out there for grants, according to Wilton,F approved by the college’s Board of Education. Since then the state has put out several economic forecasts that have competition doesn’t guarantee to help offset the cost of a grants officer. reduced the college’s standard operating budget by just Lynn Lennon, a student here on campus, feels the same way. “It’s under $3 million. Now the idea is in limbo as the college shoot, it’s scary, but there’s a difference between one person and anl administration considered whether to invest in a two year department. If it’s one person, yeah, get on it, but a whole department^® ™ trial period grant writer, or save the money to keep other that’s a lot of money. There’s not very much money and everyone’s bel back so much.” I key positions at the college. Truesdell and Wilton would not commit to answering whether tuitiol As the first economic downturn happened in 2003, the college decided to cut the original grants office that was in place. Since then the college administra be raised to fill up the $2.5 n\illion gap these recent forecasts have mad( tion has come up with a solution one may associate with the phrase “All for one, Wilton said that he wouldn’t rule it out when they put together the budl I and one for all!” where college president Joanne Truesdell and other members next year. “It’s the one revenue that we have some control over that can general of the administration and faculty are actively looking for grant programs along with their other respective duties. stantial amount of money and by doing that you can prevent some cut! Oregon released ah economic forecast in May that reduced the budget by $ 1.45 would otherwise happen and impact students,” said Wilton, adding, “Vfl million. In late August, the state released another forecast that further reduced through a very comprehensive budget process and we will look at all th| the budget by another million dollars, according to Truesdell. the college is spending money.” I The general question being asked though is not one of “Do we J “So at this time what we are going through is comparison to everything else we • have on the list. The grants officer — does that rank in relative merit to some of invest?” but rather, “How we could keep services and funding up ifl I the other key positions we may need to support services?” said Truesdell. “With invest?” By Brian Baldwin Associate News Editor — & / 1 JL American Red Cross 1 Have you given blood before? If not, now is your chance. The Associated Student Government is hosting this term’s American Red Cross blood drii Gregory Forum on Tuesday, Oct 19 and Wednesday, Oct 20 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. To schedule an appointment visit or call the ASG office in the Bill 3 Community Center at 503-594-3932. You can also call 1-866-236-3276 and ask to speak to a donor health counselor if you have questions about your eligil to donate. Scared of needles? Then now is the perfect time to overcome that fear and help those in need of blood. 1 B Illustration by Tyler Kern Clackamas Print The Clackamas Print 19600 Molalla Ave. Oregon City, OR 97045 503-594-6266 Co-Editors in Chief: Kayla Calloway Erik Andersefr News Editor: Jaime Dunkle Associate News Editor: Brian Baldwin ' Sports Editor: Robert Morrison Arts & Culture Editor: Joshua Baird Ad Manager: James Duncan Copy Editor: John Simmons Co-Design/Web Editors: John Shufelt Corey Romick Photo Editor: Michael Bonn Staff Writers/ Photographers: Andy Arbow, Ben Carlson, Max Dorsey, Conni Gaunt, Mandie Gavitt, George Craig, Pamela Hollis, Harley Jackson, Tyler Kern, Sarah Mitts, Christina Pearl, John Petty, Kyle Smith, David Spears, Nathan Sturgess, Katherine Suydam Production Assistants: Katie Aamatti, Corey Bade, Ashley DeHut-McCollum, Neil Lundin, Dakota Miller, Jesse Pierce, Ryan Rau, Tom Redick, Kelly Van Hook Journalism Adviser: Melissa Jones Goals: The Clackamas fl aims to report the I in an honest, until mal professional Content published ini Print is not screen® subject to ceiiM’rslii« E-mail comments« chiefed@clackamas4
