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
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JL
American
Red Cross
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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.
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Illustration by Tyler Kern Clackamas Print
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