SANTA ROSA: New Health Sciences Building Will Help Address ‘Huge Demand’ for Health Workers
The first classes will begin Saturday at Santa Rosa Junior College's new $10 million Health Sciences building, which will host students training for jobs in the expanding health care market, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reports. The state-of-the- art building, which will be used by roughly 250 students, has facilities for training nurses, lab technicians, dental hygienists, dental assistants and psychiatric technicians. Linda Groh, a patient care leader for Kaiser hospitals, attributed the burgeoning demand for such workers to the aging population. She said that in Northern California alone, Kaiser has vacancies for 400 nurses. Ezbon Jen, assistant dean of health sciences at the college, said, "There is a huge demand. After graduation they are gobbled up." Each year, the college will graduate 60 registered nurses, 30 licensed vocational nurses, 16 radiation technicians, 30 dental assistants, 24 dental hygienists, 30 home health care-nursing assistants and 30 psychiatric technicians. Carol Hatrick, a faculty member in the nursing department, said, "This is everybody's dream, it's a major accomplishment. It's the most advanced of all community colleges in California" (Norberg, 1/5).
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