Aiken Technical College plans for new nursing center
Jan. 30—Aiken Technical College is hoping to help address the national nursing shortage with its nursing building.
Dr. Forest Mahan, Aiken Tech president, said recent numbers from the state's Department of Employment and Workforce showed 160 registered nurse openings in Aiken County. That means the area is missing a great skill set , so the school is working to fill it, he said.
"What we're trying to do is allow for more nurses to work their way through the programs because it's a high-wage, high-demand job with a severe shortage. This just is the right time for us to being the process of this new building," said Mahan, saying the 30,000 square-foot-building will allow the school to admit more nursing students.
Currently, Aiken Tech has up to 80 associates degree in nursing students a year, up to 48 licensed practical nursing students a year and 16 LPN to registered nurse students a year, said Dr. Hannah Williams, the dean of the School of Nursing. The college is looking to add an evening LPN to RN cohort, which would add an additional 32 students a year.
"We do have plans for growth and hopefully this new building will grant us opportunities to greatly increase so that we can help supply new nurses to our community," Williams said.
Mahan said the college is still in the planning phase and a team has been put together to determine what is needed inside the new facility. He added that members of the college visited the new nursing facility at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College. But the plan is to include classrooms, labs and simulation labs.
"The state-of-the-art simulation labs should put "students in that place where they're being observed, but they don't know and you can't see the facial cues and things like that, non-verbals that come from the faculty and those really put them in that interacting only with the simulator," Chad Crumbaker, the vice president of academic student affairs said.
Mahan said he would like to keep students on campus and have the new building as a showcase building similar to the Center for Energy and Advanced Manufacturing.
"If we put something that is very prominent and visible then that kind of demonstrates where Aiken Tech is going and what we've got to offer," Mahan said. "That's one of the biggest high-demand fields right now."
The earliest ground would be broken is around January 2024 with construction estimated to take approximately 18 months, Mahan said. The location has not yet been determined, but Mahan would like if part of it could be seen from the street.
Aiken Tech has been working on the new nursing building for nearly a decade, Mahan said. The school received $11.5 million from the Savannah River Site plutonium settlement for the nursing building and has a total of approximately $14.5 million to spend toward the building.
"As we start to design it, we figure out what this is per square foot and it's like OK, sometimes what you do is you may have to shrink, we don't know yet, may have to shrink the building," Mahan said. "My feeling is, if this is what we need we build it, and then we find what we need to find."
Both Williams and Mahan said they are looking forward to what the new nursing building represents for the college and its future.
"Opportunities, space," Williams said. "My biggest hope is to grow, to grow our program, to increase the number of nurses that are going out into our community. When I say nurses, again we focus on good, quality skilled that can go out and make a difference in our community."
