Our community faces a shortage of health care workers, particularly nurses, that is rapidly approaching crisis proportions.  Baby boomer retirements from health care professions, an aging population, the growing demand for health care services – all these elements create a “perfect storm” of circumstances that require us to act now.

In 2005, the Oregon Center for Nursing reported that by 2010, Oregon will encounter a 20 percent shortage of nurses.  In Lane County alone, it is predicted that, unless we move quickly to change the situation, we will have a shortage of more than 1,300 nurses by 2014.

Our problem, however, is not a shortage of applicants for the nursing profession – it’s capacity.  Simply put, we do not have the facilities and additional faculty to train enough nurses to serve our community.  In 2007 alone, Lane received 400 applications from qualified applicants for only 81 openings in the nursing program.

The current space cannot accommodate further enrollment expansion.  The nursing labs at Lane reflect a ward style of hospital care no longer practiced in the United States.  We simply can’t fit any more students into the space we have. 

In addition, the space is inadequate to support state-of-the-art instructional methodologies designed to increase our capacity to enroll more students.  Simulation technology is an ideal solution for enrollment increases because students can practice situations on a “sim man” that they would rarely, if ever, encounter in their clinical classes at the hospital.  Lane’s current facilities are insufficient to provide a high-quality simulation experience.

There is no question that we need the right place and right equipment to train future health care professionals to use the new technologies and methodologies in the rapidly changing field of health care.  With your help, Lane Community College will build a new health and wellness building designed to meet the demand for the hands-on training required in our health care professions.  For more information on how you can help, call Janet Anderson (541- 463-5803) or Michele Erickson (541-463-5804). For further information on the campaign see: http://2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/foundation/openingdoors/

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