Cape Cod Healthcare Invests $1 Million in Community College Program

CCB MEDIA PHOTO: Cape Cod Healthcare President and CEO Michael Lauf presents a $1 million check to Cape Cod Community College President John Cox Tuesday at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.

CCB MEDIA PHOTO: Cape Cod Healthcare President and CEO Michael Lauf (left) presents a $1 million check to Cape Cod Community College President John Cox Tuesday at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.

HYANNIS – Cape Cod Healthcare is investing $1 million in the nursing program at Cape Cod Community College.

The partnership announced Tuesday will help support the expansion and renovation of the college’s nursing facilities and program.

The expansion will allow the college to enroll up to 32 more nursing students each year and increase nursing graduates by 50 percent.

“This is an investment to support healthcare on the Cape, but it’s also a commitment to the trajectory to a brighter future for many of our students in the nursing program,” said John Cox, the president of Cape Cod Community College.

The program will also help Cape Cod Healthcare fill up to 70 jobs every year, which pay up to $50,000 with benefits.

Cape Cod Healthcare President and CEO Michael Lauf said the partnership is a win-win for both organizations and, more importantly, the community.

“This program will allow people that live on the Cape, that have a home on the Cape, that have a life on the Cape, to stay here,” Lauf said. “And those that wish to enhance and further their education can do so right here on the Cape.”

The expansion of the college’s nursing program includes the creation of two new full-time faculty positions and a new director of the nursing program, along with more than doubling the teaching space and modernizing the hands-on teaching laboratory.

Total space in the current nursing program will expand to 5,200 square feet and will take over the entire lower floor of the North Building on the college’s campus.

Cox said the partnership will allow the college to have a dual enrollment initiative with area high schools where students can take prerequisite classes.

“[Students] will have access to the clinicals, the internships and the Novice Nurse programs through Cape Cod Healthcare,” Cox said.

The expanded opportunities for nursing students will prepare them to enter the workforce as Novice Nurses for the first time, and strengthen the college’s dual admissions program with the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at the community college’s campus.

“We have an excited faculty that’s ready for this investment in their life’s work,” Cox said. “We have a turbo charged set of nursing students ready to go.”

For the first time, the college’s graduates will have the opportunity to apply for positions at Cape Cod Healthcare. Graduates who are hired will be able to work on the Cape while completing their BSN degree through the UMass Boston program at the college.

“These are life sustaining jobs right here on the Cape that we’ll be able to provide,” Lauf said.

Lauf said the partnership comes at a great time for Cape Cod Healthcare.

“RNs are needed across the system,” he said. “It used to just be in hospitals, but now we need them in doctor’s offices, in clinics, the VNA of Cape Cod, along with long-term care in our rehabilitation facilities.”

The new program will begin in the fall of 2017.

By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

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