Nursing students pinned amid drive for 4-year BSN program

Esther Sanchez speaks for the Grossmont College nursing class at Cuyamaca College theatre

Prof. Peter Brooks affixes nursing pin to lapel of graduate Brian Baugh

EL CAJON—Thirty Grossmont College nursing students were welcomed into the profession in a traditional pinning ceremony on December 11, as efforts are underway in California to allow community colleges to grant four-year degrees in high-demand workforce fields such as nursing.

Associated degree nurses are registered nurses qualified to work in hospitals.  Once the associate degree graduates have passed their national licensure examination they will become registered nurses (RNs), and are qualified to work at hospitals.  However, not all positions will be open to them unless they go onto four-year colleges to obtain a BSN (bachelor of science-nursing) degree. Many hospitals in metropolitan San Diego are magnet hospitals, which seeks to hire a certain percentage of their nursing staff with at least a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

“The community college movement toward technical baccalaureates is a practical cost-effective answer to critical workforce needs. We are eager to answer that call,” said Cindy L. Miles, chancellor of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District.

Debbie Yaddow, dean of Grossmont College’s nursing program, said that bachelor’s degree programs will enable the newly-minted nurses to expand their knowledge in such areas as community health, leadership and research.   However many public four-year colleges are already so heavily enrolled that they are unable to admit as many nursing students as are needed.  This forces students to more expensive private or for profit universities and higher student loan debt. 

Work is underway in California to examine and possibly adopt the practices in over 20 other states offering students the opportunity to earn a baccalaureate degree at their local community college in specific high demand workforce fields such as nursing.

For students who graduated on Wednesday from the two-year program, the evening was an important way-station in their nursing careers.  Nursing student Sarah Wingo, addressing the audience at the ceremony, quoted from the book Streams in The Desert by L.B. Cowman, saying it “mirrors my feelings about the nursing school experience beautifully.”

“Around the turn of the twentieth century, a bar of steel was worth about $5. Yet…

…when forged into horseshoes, it was worth $10
…when made into needles, its value was $350
…when used to make small pocketknife blades, its worth was $32,000
…when made into springs for watches, its value increased to $250,000.”

“What a pounding the steel bar had to endure to be worth this much! But the more it was…shaped, hammered, put through fire, beaten, pounded, and polished…the greater its value.”

After thanking the nursing faculty for metaphorically beating, pounding and polishing their students, Wingo reflected “As difficult as our days may become, it is our patients who are in a vulnerable position and it is our duty to ensure that they receive safe and compassionate care.” Wingo said. “So thank you, professors, for giving us the skills, strength, and knowledge to be able to do so.”

The joy and light-heartedness students felt during their pinning ceremony was reflected by student Esther Sanchez.  She said no one in the class would forget having a patient saying “Thank you for everything you have done today!”



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Grossmont College provides short-term training for office professionals

EL CAJON -- Grossmont College will help students obtain new office skills or brush up on old ones to enhance their value as office professionals,  with a variety of short-term classes commencing with the Spring Semester in January.

Whether students desire positions as office clerks, secretaries, administrative assistants or even as stay-at-home entrepreneurs marketing their services as “virtual assistants,”

Grossmont College is providing short-term programs for them through its Business Office Technology (BOT) and Business (BUS) Departments.  On Facebook, one may find information on Business Office Technology at https://www.facebook.com/grossmont.bot . 

Here are some classes the faculty wishes to draw to the attention of prospective students:


                                                Course No.         Brief Description              Start                      End
On-Line Courses
                                                BOT-120               MS Word                             Jan 27                    March 21
                                                BOT-123               MS Excel                             Jan 27                    March 21
                                                BOT 111                Virtual Assistant             Jan 27                    June 2
                                                BOT 150                Microsoft Pub.                 Feb. 3                    April 4  
                                                BOT 104                Filing, Records Mgmt    Feb 18                   April 26
                                               
On-Campus Courses                                                      
                                                BOT-102A            Keyboarding Docs           Jan 27                    June 2
                                                BOT-102B            Keyboard/ Docs II            Jan 27                    June 2
                                                BUS 148                Cust. Relations Mgmt    Jan 27                    March 21
                                                BUS 252                Global Sources                 Jan 27                    March 21
                                                BOT 094                Internet Basics                 Jan 27                    June 2  
                                                BOT 299A             Social Media Basics        Jan 27                    June 2
                                                BOT 151                Microsoft Outlook          Jan 27                    June 2

                       

                                               
The Virtual Assistant course (BOT 111) teaches students how to open a home office and then via email, fax, phone and other communications devices market themselves to small companies needing assistants to provide administrative support.  Instructor Tom Smerk recommends the course to the following groups: 1. People whose career drive and success goals are not being recognized by their employer 2. People who have to take care of children or a parent 3. Workers with disabilities 4. Those who want to hold a full-time job but use the virtual assistant business to make some extra income on the side 5. People who like to travel. More information about this and other Business Office Technology courses may be found at http://www.grossmont.edu/bot  

Per the chart above, the Business Department is offering Customer Relations Management (BUS-148) and Global Sources, Buying and Manufacturing (BUS-252). The ‘ Microsoft Publisher ‘(BOT-150) course will help students create flyers, brochures, business cards, letterhead, logos  among other items, said Prof. Linda Snider, BOT coordinator.

Information on how to enroll in all these short-term courses, as well as others programs such as the “Security Academy” (AOJ-1761A) course offered in the Academy of Justice program, may be obtained by visiting Grossmont College’s website, www.grossmont.edu 

OPT Program

A separate,  intensive program which is free to students, thanks to grants from industry and  proceeds from volunteer fundraising, is the Office Professional Training (OPT) program that begins Jan. 6. Nearly 2,300 students have graduated this program since its inception in 1985.

In addition to free tuition and textbooks, the program provides personal/crisis counseling, job placement assistance, and professional clothing for students who cannot afford to purchase new wardrobes to wear on interviews or to work, said Dr. Mary Leslie, OPT Lead Instructor. 

Dr. Leslie, who has headed the program for 27 years, said intensive classes meet for 20 weeks on Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Any California resident looking for a job may apply for the program, which includes six core courses as well as several electives in the semester.

Core courses include job search, office systems and procedures, business English and communication.  Core software classes are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Keyboarding.  In addition to their core courses, students elect to specialize in one or more of the following:  Accounting, Banking, Insurance, and/or Office Support. 

Leslie said up to 50 students per semester may enter the program, with the approximate value being $3,000 per student, which is defrayed through grants and contributions from individuals, foundations, and government agencies, as well as various fundraising events organized by OPT faculty, alumni, and students.

New and lightly used office clothing is donated by friends of the program.  Each student may have as a gift three complete outfits, and then, through “OPT bucks”—which are awarded for punctual and regular attendance—the students may acquire even more outfits.

Other fundraising is done through a golf tournament and a fashion show sponsored by the Professional Women in Insurance; special Grossmont College OPT days at local restaurants in which the program receives a percentage of the revenues; sale of pizza in the Main Quad; auctions of donated items at Mentor Night; a spring Walk-a-Thon; and the pre-Christmas sale of decorative bricks and other craft items made by OPT alumni at regular weekly get-togethers.

The OPT program was started under the federal Job Training Partnership Act, and then continued under the Workforce Investment Act.  Initially the federal government provided funds in an effort to move welfare recipients into jobs.  Today, the program must raise its own funds, and, while welfare recipients continue to benefit from the program, applicants no longer are required to demonstrate financial hardship.  To donate to the program, contact Leslie at (619) 644-7533.

“This program is so valuable,” Leslie commented.  “You can really change people’s lives, not by giving them a hand out, but a hand up.  If people are willing to work for it, they can enter a career that has a ladder so they can move up.” 

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