PVCC Puma Press

PVCC Nursing program
Students wear scrubs to lab classes now on campus
By Carmela Kelly, October 2009
News Editor

Expect to see PVCC nursing students wearing scrubs this spring due to a new opportunity to study on campus in clinical labs.

The associate of science nursing degree program is not new to PVCC, which graduated its first students in 2005.

“People don’t know we’re here. They don’t see students in scrubs,” says the program’s site secretary, Pam Warren.

The scrubs are required uniforms during clinical studies according to Rose Dermody, chair of the nursing program and a registered nurse with 40 years of experience.

“They wear scrubs so that they…will perform as professionals,” she says.

The students have been taking their lab studies off-campus at the John C. Lincoln Cowden Center off Dunlap Avenue and Second Street in Phoenix. Paradise Valley Community College has had a partnership with the John C. Lincoln Healthcare Network since 2003, says Dermody, but they ran out of space this year. Dermody approached Dr. Mary Lou Mosley, vice president of academic affairs at PVCC, for space on PVCC’s campus and the Arizona State Board of Nursing for approval.

While Dermody hopes for additional space in the new Life Sciences building, 40 students out of 2,163 enrolled in the Maricopa County Community College program overall will begin training in room L102 of the L Building in January 2010. A visit to that classroom now will show it is already in use for healthcare education and includes two hospital beds.

But Dermody is hoping for both space and budget to bring valuable training tools to campus such as Sim Man and Sim Baby. These are programmable replicas of humans that simulate a patient’s problems, and they offer an alternative clinical learning experience to hospitals and clinics in Phoenix. They cost between $27,000 and $40,000 each with further investment in training faculty to use them.

Sim Man currently has his own room at the Cowden Center where six students can attend him while faculty cues various ailments or discomfort. “Ouch!” and “My heart hurts” are part of learning what it is to be a nurse.

It’s learning what to do if this happens or that happens, says Dermody. It’s learning how to function and think as nurses beyond procedures. It is also learning to get past vomiting or fainting for some students upon the sight of blood, says Dermody, who has seen students faint or vomit.

While Dermody has been successful in getting more room on campus for nursing students, it does not begin to fulfill the demand by local would-be nurses in getting education. There are 2,393 unaccommodated hopefuls who want a spot in the nursing program right now, says Dermody. That may be in part due to the high rate of employment post graduation as Dermody says that every one of their past graduates is licensed and all performing in the Valley. She also says that when she visits John C. Lincoln hospitals here, she recognizes 50 percent of the staff on every floor as being graduates of the Maricopa County nursing education program.

All of the graduating students have the opportunity to test and obtain a registered nursing degree, but PVCC encourages graduates to pursue their Bachelor of Science in nursing degrees and beyond, says Dermody. There is more job security in higher education according to Beth Guerra, the program’s student adviser.

Those candidates who want to apply to the nursing program should have an interest and background in science as they will be studying courses such as chemistry, biology and psychology, courses that are available to all on campus due to the nursing program.

Guerra sees more than 400 students a month per Dermody.

“I see quite a few students a month,” says Guerra, “ but it is a rewarding experience. I definitely want to help the students get the correct information that they need and to take the right classes that they need to as well in order to apply.”