The nursing shortage in the state of Nevada was the focus of Senator Jacky Rosen's stop in Fallon Tuesday morning. The senator toured the construction of Western Nevada College's Rural Nursing Expansion and Renovation Project. It's partially made possible due to a $2.3 million grant she helped secure.
Senator Rosen says this facility will expand opportunities for more people to attend nursing school and help minimize the nationwide nursing shortage impacting Nevada.
"When it comes to health care, when it comes to nursing, Nevada is thousands of nurses short, thousands. And so how do we attack this problem? We want to be sure that we grow nurses right from our community," said Sen. Rosen.
Right now, the nursing students at the Fallon campus have to travel to Carson City to complete their required coursework. And for the last six years, the students have been working out of a small makeshift clinic off the library. The new facility repurposes a building more than three decades old, allows for more students to join the program, and will house state-of-the-art technology.
"For those of you who are not aware, Master of Science in Nursing is it is the standard that hospitals are looking for. It is very hard to find that in rural Nevada, in rural anywhere," said Dana Ryan, Western Nevada College's Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs.
This program is expected to give students the foundation to reach a Master of Science in nursing at home, where they're from.
The office of Governor Joe Lombardo commented on the shortage saying, "Governor Lombardo recognized Nevada’s shortage of medical professionals and took action by investing tens of millions of dollars to expand nursing education programs and signing an executive order directing the Nevada Patient Protection Commission to develop solutions to strengthen the state’s healthcare workforce."
