LCCC Constructs New Health Science Facility And Prepares To Expand Programs
dean lisa stich, expansion, health care, health sciences and wellness program, health sciences facility, healthcare, laramie county community college, lccc nursing program,
Aging baby boomers and advances in medical technology mean an increasing number of patients will be demanding health care. The Health Sciences and Wellness program at Laramie County Community College has shifted into overdrive to help ensure that highly trained medical professionals are ready for the challenge.
LCCC students in several health-care programs will begin 2009 in the college’s new three-story, 37,520-square-foot health sciences facility.
“Originally, we were going to be moving into some remodeled space, but as we worked with our architects, they suggested that a better way to accomplish this and make the health sciences a priority would be to build a new health sciences building,” recalls Health Sciences and Wellness Dean Lisa Stich.
While the radiography and dental hygiene programs will remain in the Science Center, nursing, sonography, surgical technology, stenography and a new physical-therapy assistant program – the first in the state – will move to the new facility. The college hired its physical-therapy assistant director in October 2007.
LCCC’s nursing program is hands-down its largest, with 224 students. Twice a year, 56 students are added to the two-year program, which includes summer study. Typically about 100 students are also working on nursing prerequisites, Stich says.
Radiography accepts 18 students annually, surgical technology 12 students, stenography 12 students and dental hygiene 20 students. Dental hygiene is an accelerated program that covers two years of material in 16 months. Two sections of the certified nurse assistant course, which is required for state certification, are offered each semester, and 36 students are accepted per course.
“All of our established programs, which are nursing, radiography and dental hygiene, consistently have many more applicants than we have openings for students,” Stich says.
That applicant rate is expected to grow as word spreads about the new facility, which includes a patient-simulation center with computerized mannequins programmed to simulate various diseases and conditions.
Stich says radiography will probably be the next program to expand. Also, in partnership with Sheridan College, plans are under way to offer pharmacy-technician training.
“We’re building a lab that will allow students to take their theory classes online, and then they will be able to come to our facility for the laboratory portion of their training,” Stich says.
To meet the demand of state laboratories in Cheyenne, as well as Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, a new medical-laboratory technician program and a phlebotomy certificate program are in the works, too.
“Our hospital always has a list for us,” Stich says. “And before we start any program, we do a survey to make sure that the community is interested in and supportive of the need for that programming. Also we want to know that there will be sufficient jobs available for those students when they graduate.”
Story by Sharon Fitzgerald
