The Dane G. Hansen Foundation recently notified Colby Community College that they will honor two nurses as “Instructors of Excellence” by contributing $100,000 to fund their salaries for the 2013-14 school year.

“The two recipients selected for this honor are Jennifer Landis, a nursing instructor at the WaKeeney campus; and Gwen Loyd, Norton nursing instructor,” said President Steve Vacik. “It is truly an honor because the Hansen Foundation has given this money in support of excellent instruction. Both Jennifer and Gwen are outstanding examples of the quality nursing instructors at CCC.”

Colby Community College has three locations that offer nursing classes. The Colby campus includes day practical nursing and both day and evening registered nursing programs. The Norton campus also offers day and evening classes for practical and registered nursing students. The WaKeeney program which began last year also offers day and evening classes for students.

CCC can accept 90 students on the Colby campus. Norton accepts 30 daytime and 20 evening students. WaKeeney can accept 10 day and 40 evening students.

“The money received from the Hansen Foundation will pay the salaries of two of our best nurses,” said Dr. Vacik. “This will allow the college to utilize the payroll savings to replenish the College reserve fund.”
The mission of the Hansen Foundation is to enhance the quality of life throughout rural communities in northwest Kansas. In a report prepared by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the Health Resources and Services Administration reports that by 2020, without aggressive intervention, the US nursing supply will fall 36 percent below requirements, a shortage of more than a million registered nurses nationwide. Although projections differ about how many Kansas RNs will be needed to address future needs, there is much concern expressed in regard to a steadily worsening RN shortage.

Both nationally and in Kansas, a growing population and changing demographics are impacting access to nursing care. Kansas population is projected to grow an estimated 12 percent between 2000 and 2020 (2.7 million to 3.0 million), while Kansas population age 65 and over is expected to expand by 46 percent. The growing population, and especially the population cohort age 65 and over who are most likely to have the greatest medical needs, will place increasing demands on the health care system.

In addition there are bottlenecks to the production of new nurses. There are not enough faculty members to teach RN students and fewer nursing educational slots available than needed to educate the volume of nursing applicants.

“It is a priority at Colby Community College to train as many nursing students as possible in our service area,” said Dr. Vacik. “We realize many of our students are place-bound and not able to travel to Colby on a daily basis. To meet the demand, Colby began the program in Norton several years ago and started the nursing programs in WaKeeney last year. Because nursing is a costly program, this gift from the Hansen Foundation is especially helpful allowing us to deliver programs to other towns in our service area.”
For more information about the nursing programs in Colby, Norton or WaKeeney, contact Rebecca Johnson at (785) 460-5444.