On Sept. 18, Congressman Josh Harder secured $3.8 million in the community project funding monies from the House Appropriations Committee, which will be delivered in a grant to Delta College with the intent of expanding the nursing program.
Delta College plans on investing the money into more equipment and facilities to conduct the nursing program’s simulation labs. These simulations use patient mannequins with lifelike tubing that nursing students can practice their medical skills on in a safe environment.
“We have several different labs on campus that we use in the Locke Building right now, that we use for students to be able to come on campus and practice their skills. They practice simulations so they’re mimicking something that’s in a clinical environment, but they’re doing it in a space that’s here on campus so it’s a little bit safer, and they get to practice and go through the motions before they actually go out into the clinical space with patients,” said Julie Henderson, Director of Grants at Delta College and writer of the $3.8 million grant. “We’ve been improving our simulation spaces, and trying to constantly keep up with the different practices that we see with our clinical partners and different evidence-based practice that we see that’s constantly changing in a clinical environment.”
Currently, California is facing a nursing crisis where hospitals remain understaffed following the COVID-19 pandemic. This shortage of nurses is projected to grow even larger. A study conducted by the Healthforce Center of UC San Francisco estimated a 35 percent increase in demand for registered nurses in San Joaquin Valley alone by 2030, while also predicting a decline of workers within the area.
The intent of the grant monies is to relieve the ongoing labor shortage in California’s nursing industry. Delta College and the U.S Department of Education aim to prepare San Joaquin County for the shortage by training more registered nurses for the future through the additional funding.
“Our families are waiting way too long to get the healthcare they need. We have to train and keep more health practitioners in San Joaquin County,” Harder said in a media release about the funding. “I am proud to bring home this money to expand Delta College’s nursing program to make sure we are training talent right here at home and getting our families the health care they need.”
The increased budget could allow for Delta College to double the number of nursing students on campus. To increase the number of students at Delta College’s nursing program, an application for a higher student limit would have to be submitted and approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing. Currently, the Delta College nursing program enrolls 120 students yearly, according to the Board of Registered Nursing.
“One of the program’s issues is finding qualified faculty, so we can’t always increase the number of students because qualified faculty are needed. We have to have the hospital partnerships, so clinical placements are a factor in what we do and how we can increase the numbers, the Board of Registered Nursing has to approve us to increase numbers, and then ultimately funding as well,” said Lisa Lucchesi, Dean of Health Sciences at Delta College. “We can’t just increase the number of students to produce more employees like that.”