EvCC gets a healthy boost
Published 12:01 am Wednesday, August 10, 2011
A nugget of good news that came out of this year’s bad news legislative session(s) provides a much needed shot in the arm for Everett Community College and the city.
It’s fitting that the closed and grossly unsanitary Royal Motor Inn located at 10th and Broadway, will be replaced by the coll
ege’s new Nursing and Health Sciences building. Work is scheduled to start this month. The Legislature approved $31.9 million for the 70,000-square-foot building, $5.8 million less than requested. The school was one of just five community and technical colleges to get capital funding — in a year when funding for all state capital projects was reduced by 15 percent.
The building will house the college’s nursing, medical assisting and phlebotomy programs and other health sciences training in addition to the Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic, now located across the street.
EvCC’s Board of Trustees, rather than reduce the size of the project, decided to use a combination of local funds and borrowing money for equipment to close the gap, said Pat Sisneros, EvCC vice president of College Services, on the school’s website. That’s an important, forward-thinking commitment, given the ever-growing demand for workers in the health care field. The Washington Center for Nursing estimates that if increased enrollments do not happen soon, there will be a statewide nursing shortage of up to 20,000 nurses by 2020.
In a big boost last summer, the college received a $4.8 million federal grant through the Healthcare Education-to-Career Opportunities project, or HECO. The money allowed the school to offer nursing classes at night and training for other much-needed health care positions such as phlebotomy technicians and medical assistants, the Snohomish County Business Journal reported.
Everett Community College has been training nurses since 1950. The school reports that 100 percent of their nursing graduates find jobs within six months. Graduates receive an Associates in Arts and Sciences in Nursing degree. Since last fall, the program also prepares nurses to go on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree, with classes in Everett, through a University Center program offered by University of Washington Bothell. The Center works closely with Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, The Everett Clinic and others. Many students are already employed at these institutions, University Center Vice President Christine Kerlin told the Business Journal. EvCC’s other health-related programs include everything from medical billing to nutrition.
It’s great for our economy and community that EvCC is training many of the nurses and other workers needed to meet the demand at the ever-growing health-care facilities in our region.
