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West Virginia Junior College, Camden Clark Medical Center unveil mobile nursing lab

From left, Anna Rittenhouse, caseworker and field representative for US. Rep. David McKinley, Jenica Greynolds, campus president for West Virginia Junior College, Cheryl Bailey, interim chief nursing officer for WVU Camden Clark Medical Center, WVJC CEO Chad Callen, and Michael Browning, senior advisor for U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin. cut the ribbon to celebrate the expansion of WVJC’s Hybrid Online Nursing Program and partnership with WVU Medicine Camden Clark on Wednesday. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — West Virginia Junior College, in partnership with WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center, unveiled a new mobile nursing lab and announced the expansion of its Hybrid Online Nursing Program to Wood County on Wednesday.

“Gov. Jim Justice recognized the need for solving the nursing shortage, which is near crisis levels, and provided funding through the Nursing Workforce Expansion Grant for programs all across the state to expand their nursing programs,” WVJC CEO Chad Callen said. “This is a product of that investment.”

Justice announced in May that nearly $23 million in grant funding was going to be awarded to 26 nursing education programs at colleges, universities, schools of nursing, and career technical education centers across West Virginia.

The 18-month nursing program will allow students to achieve a nursing degree without ever stepping foot into a classroom. Students who participate in the Wood County program will take classes online, and attend lab and clinical experiences at WVU Medicine Camden Clark, and in the Mobile Nursing Lab, during evenings and on the weekend.

The Mobile Nursing Lab is a 38-foot retrofitted RV with two simulated hospital rooms, with pediatric, obstetric, and geriatric training, along with high-fidelity simulation technology that consists of artificial patients so life-like they blink, breathe, and have a pulse. All are controlled by a skilled operator from within the mobile lab. This will help in giving students a place to hone the skills necessary for success in the nursing field.

West Virginia Junior College unveiled its Mobile Nursing Lab, a 38-foot RV retrofitted with two simulated hospital rooms with high-fidelity simulation technology, on Wednesday at WVU Camden Clark Medical Center in Parkersburg. WVJC has expanded its Hybrid Online Nursing Program to Wood County to help solve healthcare disparities, and worker shortages, through a partnership with Camden Clark. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

“We’re very excited about this,” said Cheryl Bailey, interim chief nursing officer for Camden Clark. “It’s offering something different for people that maybe have day obligations and haven’t been able to work the time to go to school. So, with this program offering evenings and weekends, that’s really wonderful. That’s thinking outside of the box”

Currently this is the only mobile nursing lab of its kind, but Callen said there are two more labs on the way that he expects to be put into service at the beginning of 2023.

Potential students will have to fulfill a few requirements before being accepted into the program. They will have to pass an entrance exam, submit letters of reference and essays, and pass an interview with the nursing department.

Anyone interested in learning more about the WVJC Hybrid Online Registered Nurse training programs around the state can visit the website at www.wvjc.edu/online-nursing-program.

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com

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