MWCC's Weekly e-newsletter

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

AMBITIOUS NURSING PLAN AIMS TO BOOST ENROLLMENT IN SPRING 2005

By Kimberly B. Caisse

The Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) Nursing Department and School of Health Science has devised a plan to enroll more students and address the critical nursing shortage in Massachusetts. This ambitious plan is already seeing positive results.

"If we are to put more nurses at the bedsides of patients who need them, we need to be aggressive and creative in our approach," said MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino. "I'm proud of our faculty and staff who have responded so quickly to this great community need."

MWCC nursing student Diana Maynard of Royalston takes Assistant Director of Healthcare Pathways Alice LeBlanc's blood pressure while fellow nursing student Tina Moriarty of Leominster looks on. Diana works at Heywood Hospital in cardiology and Tina works at HealthAlliance Highlands.

For the fall semester, MWCC saw about 580 people apply to the Nursing Department's registered nurse (RN) program. Of the nearly 110 who were admitted, 100 students showed up the first day of classes-60 day students; 40 night students. Looking ahead to the spring 2005 semester, 300 people applied to the college's practical nursing (PN) program; 150 have qualified for admission.

A solution involved adding more faculty and students to the evening program and offering clinicals on weekends.

All efforts to increase program capacity have seen positive results. Between 2000, when MWCC's evening RN program was first introduced, and spring 2005, evening enrollment grew from 16 students to 82. Daytime enrollment climbed from 87 students to 118 during the same period. The number of students enrolled in the PN program rose from 27 in 2002 to 104 in spring 2005.

The pay-off of the new strategic plan was remarkable. The number of students enrolled in the evening RN program is up to 82 students for the spring 2005 semester from 72 students in 2004. Students enrolled in the PN program jumped from 50 students in 2004 to 104 in spring 2005.

The new plan also reflects an overall potential 434.2 percent increase of nurses entering the workforce from MWCC programs.

MWCC's nursing program attracts individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds. "I would say I have a quarter (of students) right out of (high) school, I have maybe a quarter who are making major career changes, and the rest are CNAs (certified nurse aides) who want to become nurses," said Director of Nursing Eileen Costello .

Wendell Marshall of Barre spent 18 years gold mining and fur trapping in Alaska before he came back to Massachusetts in 1995 to be closer to his family. "When my wife broke her leg, I spent a lot of time in the hospital and got a job as a janitor. While working there, I really admired the nurses-all the responsibilities they had," he said.

This May, a father-and-son team expects to graduate from the nursing program. Daniel Ackroyd of Fitchburg sold software and then was twice the victim of company layoffs. "I saw a trend in the software industry and didn't want to go through that again. My brother is a nurse, and there are lots of doctors and nurses in my family. It seemed like a natural progression."

His dad, a high school physics teacher of 30 years and Brown University graduate, Jim Ackroyd, commutes to the campus from Rhode Island because of the quality of the MWCC Nursing Program. "It's an inspiration to me to be in a class with people who have overcome so much, especially the single mothers," he said.

After working for the first year while teaching and juggling evening classes with a 7:30 a.m. arrival time at Leominster High School, he said he understands the difficulty of managing multiple responsibilities.

Lisa Marie Poladian of Fitchburg will participate in the upcoming Dec. 20 Pinning Ceremony for the MWCC Practical Nursing Program. She plans to "bridge" into the RN program and hopes to continue her education and ultimately teach nursing.

Poladian said she was in an automobile accident in 1974 which killed her mother and left her paralyzed for four-and-a-half years. "They (nurses) went out of their way for me," she said. "I was inspired by what was given to me as a patient and want to give back."

Poladian is currently working as a medical assistant with a phlebotomy license at Fallon Pediatric Urgentcare in Worcester and Integrity Homecare Services in Fitchburg.

The college's nursing program is almost at capacity. "What is keeping us at these numbers now is that we can't find anymore clinical sites," Costello said. This is especially true in pediatric and mental health nursing settings.

Area health care facilities are accommodating students from anywhere between three and six schools, she explained. MWCC added weekend clinicals to its program specifically because the weekday clinical programs were full.

NURSING PROFESSOR TRAVELING TO SOUTH AFRICA TO STUDY AIDS AND MATERNITY ISSUES

By Kimberly B. Caisse

This Saturday nursing Professor Nancy Duphily will embark on a two-week trip to South Africa, fulfilling her dream to learn first-hand about breastfeeding in that part of the world and the challenges AIDS presents to that basic life function. "It will not only help me professionally, but it will also make me a better teacher," Duphily said about the trip.

MWCC Nursing Professor Nancy Duphily gives a flu shot to Frank Crossman of Gardner during a flu clinic at the Gardner Senior Center. More than 25 MWCC students helped administer shots to city residents 75 years old and older.

Duphily, who also works as a per diem lactation consultant at Heywood Hospital in Gardner and HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster and teaches child birth classes at HealthAlliance, has long been interested in traveling to Africa to study the AIDS epidemic. Shortly after reading "AIDS and South Africa: The Social Expression of a Pandemic" last spring, a letter arrived from the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA) inviting her to be a part of a People to People delegation traveling to Cape Town and Johannesburg.

She said she saw it as a wonderful opportunity, but doubted she could afford to participate.

With the encouragement of School of Health Sciences Dean Debbie Orre and Director of Nursing Eileen Costello, Duphily applied for assistance from MWCC. The college agreed to pay half of her expenses, she said.

She is very grateful for the college's financial assistance as well as the moral support of her family, staff and students. "This might be the only chance to go there and make a difference," she said.

Throughout the trip, the People to People delegation will explore "ways to stem the rising HIV population in South Africa ," Duphily explained in a thank-you letter to the college's professional development committee. More needs to be learned about the "complex feeding needs in South Africa " and how those needs impact the transmission of HIV from mother to child.

More than 5 million South Africans are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS; more than 600,000 children are orphans because of the disease. In the past decade, the life expectancy in South Africa has dropped from 67 to 43 years.

The People to People delegation is expected to discuss the following topics:

•  The role of the health care worker in helping mothers with birth and breastfeeding;

•  The role of the community in postpartum care that supports breastfeeding;

•  The importance of kangaroo care (mother-baby skin-to-skin contact) for premature babies and newborns with HIV;

•  Research on the implications of the HIV epidemic on infant feeding;

•  The role of government in infant feeding

Each member of the delegation has to make a presentation based on these topics. Duphily said the delegation also will visit orphanages, hospital maternity units, including a prenatal clinic, and health department offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg . "I'm sure we're going to see just a microcosm of what's going on in South Africa," she said.

When she returns to the U.S., Duphily will give a presentation on what she learned on the trip.

MWCC STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION AND MASSPIRG BREAK RECORD IN 'FILL THE CHAIR' FOOD DRIVE

By Lea Ann Erickson

	MWCC SGA President Diana Russo and Gardner Mayor Gerald St. Hilaire wave to motorists to solicit food donations at the annual "Fill the Chair" Food Drive in front of Elm Street School.

Over 2,000 pounds of food was raised at this year's annual "Fill the Chair" Food Drive on Saturday, Nov. 20 in front of Elm Street School -shattering last year's record of just over 1,000 pounds.

The effort was co-sponsored by the MWCC Student Government Association (SGA) and MASSPIRG as part of MWCC's Decade of Civic Engagement initiative.

Volunteers collected food and clothing for weeks from sites across the campus and at the Gardner Stop & Shop. Their goal was to "fill the chair" in front of Gardner 's Elm Street School and to fill Thanksgiving baskets for needy families.

SGA representatives also presented cash donations to the Gardner Community Action Committee, the Gardner Visiting Nurses Association, Ginny's Helping Hands (Leominster), and Our Father's House (Fitchburg). These donations were made possible by the SGA's Penny Wars fund raiser.

POLUS CENTER DIRECTOR SPEAKS AT ALPHA BETA GAMMA DINNER

Michael Lundquist

Nearly 50 people-including 15 Alpha Beta Gamma (ABG) members-attended the annual ABG Speaker Dinner featuring Michael Lundquist, Friday, Nov. 19 at the Gardner campus.

Lundquist is executive director of the Worcester-based Polus Center for Social and Economic Development, Inc. He spoke about the Polus Center 's mission and recent community-based human service initiatives in Ethiopia and Nicaragua.

The Polus Center is a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization that supports a wide variety of human service initiatives on the national and international level. For more information about Polus, you can check out their website at www.poluscenter.org.

Campus Events:

• College and university representatives continue to visit MWCC at various times this semester. Fitchburg State College, Wednesday, Dec.1, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Enrollment Services; Worcester State College, Thursday, Dec. 2, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Transfer Services table; University of Phoenix, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students interested in meeting with representatives scheduled to be in Enrollment Services must register with Nancy Greenlaw for a half-hour appointment. She may be reached at (978) 630-9321.

• MWCC's Health Science Division will present "A Taste of Chi" on Wednesday, Dec. 1 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in room 342. Chi is the universal energy/life force in all living things that is the basis of traditional Chinese medicine. Mike Kressy, the presenter, is a professor emeritus at MWCC and has been studying Tai Chi Kung for 20 years. To participate in this free program, contact Gayle Jaillet at (978) 630-9265 or at g_jaillet@mwcc.mass.edu.

• MWCC's annual Holiday Fair will be held in the commons area Wednesday, Dec. 1 and Thursday, Dec. 2 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Vendors will be selling gift items such as wool sweaters, hats and blankets, silk flower arrangements and crafts. The college's annual Theme Basket raffle also will be held. This year, 14 baskets will be raffled off to raise money for student scholarships. For more information, contact the Student Life Office at (978) 630-9252.

• The Institute for Non-profit Development will hold Introduction to Grantwriting: Part II on Thursday, Dec. 2 from 8 to 11:30 a.m. in MWCC's North Cafeteria. Tony Moryl, an adjunct instructor at Springfield College who teaches grant writing, will review the details of building grant sections, interagency collaboration, the role of linkages in proposal development, different methods of fund raising, and how these methods can complement your grant writing. The fee-$85 for nonmembers and $59.50 for members-covers the cost of part one and two of the seminar and breakfast. For more information, call the institute at (978) 630-9591.

• The Mount Wachusett Community College Foundation, Inc. and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer will hold an annual Holiday Greens Sale at the Congregational Church in Groton Sat., Dec. 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Proceeds will support the professional development of the MWCC's nursing faculty and to encourage highly trained nurses to share their knowledge with the college's nursing students. For more information, contact Diane Hamilton at dhamilton@mwcc.mass.edu or (978) 630-9387.

• Tickets are now on sale for performances of "Inspecting Carol" on Friday, Dec. 3, Saturday, Dec. 4, Friday, Dec. 10, and Saturday, Dec. 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 12 at 2 p.m. in the Theatre at the Mount. Mix together a struggling theater company, a tired production of "A Christmas Carol," a really bad actor and a visiting inspector for the National Endowment for the Arts, and you end up with an off-the-wall holiday farce. Everything that could possibly go wrong does as a fictitious theater company struggles to mount their annual production of the holiday classic. Bad theatre has never been this much fun before! For information and reservations, call the Theatre at the Mount box office at (978) 632-2403, or purchase tickets online at http://theatre.mwcc.edu.

• MWCC's Division of Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development will host two workshops on Thursday, Dec. 9 for area businesses interested in learning more about the state's Workforce Training Fund program . Representatives from the Massachusetts Workforce Training Fund, the Workforce Investment Board and MWCC will explain how business professionals can improve company efficiency, increase employee retention, and enhance employee skill base with a training grant from the Workforce Training Fund. The workshop for businesses with under 50 people will run from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Representatives of businesses with over 50 people or interested in seeking larger grants can attend the 1 to 2 p.m. session. A working lunch will be served between 12 and 1 p.m. The registration fee, which covers the workshops and the lunch, is $25.

• MWCC will hold a clothes swap fund raiser on Friday, Dec. 10 from 10:30 a.m. to12:30 p.m. in the North Cafeteria. For a $5 donation, participants can bring in up to two bags of unwanted clothes (tall kitchen bag size). Clothes should be in good condition. (Stained or torn clothing or undergarments cannot be accepted.) For that same $5 donation, participants will receive a bag to use to "shop" through the other donated clothes! To pre-register, contact Missi Howlett at (978) 630-9273 or m_howlett@mwcc.mass.edu or Jo-Ann Meagher at (978) 630-9105 or j_meagher@mwcc.mass.edu.

• Theatre at the Mount will hold auditions for Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" on Tuesday, Dec. 14 and Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. sharp in room 182 at Mount Wachusett Community College . Those who audition are asked to prepare a short vocal selection (accompanist provided), expect to be taught a short dance combination and to wear appropriate clothing and footwear. For more information, contact Professor Gail Steele at (978) 630-9162 or visit the Theatre at the Mount website at http://theatre.mwcc.edu.

• The Greater Gardner Community Choir will present a holiday concert at MWCC on Sunday, Dec. 19 at 4 p.m. The theme of the concert will be "A Season of Glorias." Tickets for the concert will be available at the door for $5. Senior citizens will be admitted at no charge. For additional information, contact Professor Gail Steele at (978) 630-9162.

Lea Ann Erickson
Director of Community Relations
Mount Wachusett Community College
Phone: (978) 630-9322
Fax: (978) 630-9561
cell: (508) 517-5202
l_erickson@mwcc.mass.edu

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