BY SHELLEY SMITH
Glasgow Daily Times
Since the Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College’s first nursing graduating
class in 1957, the college has graduated 2,300 licensed practical nurses and 150 registered
nurses.
The program’s growth over the years necessitated the construction of a new building on the health campus.
Jimmy Isenberg, dean of Allied Health and Nursing, was joined Wednesday by Dr. Phillip Neal, president of SKYCTC, facility, students and community members to celebrate the ribbon cutting of their new 5,200-square-foot facility for classroom space and a new microbiology lab.
Isenberg said the new building will add to SKYCTC’s main goal of affordability, accessibility and transferability. The building features a general education classroom for up to 30 students, a microbiology classroom for 50 to 60 students, a computer lab for up to 40 students and a “state of the art” microbiology lab with a 24-student capacity.
Isenberg said the new space will be a big help to nursing students who are required to have a microbiology lecture and lab to graduate. Prior to the construction, students had to go to the Bowling Green campus once a week for the microbiology lab. Isenberg said having the lab here will really add to accessibility and convenience for students, especially for the students who commute from as far as Jamestown to the Glasgow campus. He added there are no wasted credits at SKYCTC because they have worked to ensure students’ credit hours can transfer to any state university in Kentucky.
Neal thanked the community for its support and the students who are going on to become a nurse. “It’s a selfless line of work, but we need you,” he said. Neal said there may come a time when he can’t take care of himself, but he said he felt more comfortable about aging, knowing that it may be the high-caliber SKYCTC graduates who will take care of him one day.
Isenberg said the nursing program has really grown since 1996 when they had around 100 fulltime students on the health campus. Currently, there are around 200 students enrolled at the health campus.
Shanon Kees is one of those 200 students, and she is set to graduate from the LPN program in
December. In 2010, Kees was laid off from her full-time job. The job loss became an opportunity
as Kees decided to pursue her long-time goal of becoming a nurse.
“There’s a timing for everything,” Kees said. “It’s by faith and the grace of God that I’m here.”
She said her favorite part about being a nurse is interacting with the patients. She works part-time at the Southern Kentucky Rehabilitation Hospital in Bowling Green.
“You take away something from every clinical setting,” Kees said. She said she often prays with patients and tries to give them encouragement. “Some of the patients can’t bathe themselves. It makes you realize how much we take for granted,” Kees said.
After graduation, Kees hopes to move on the SKYCTC’s RN program and possibly pursue a career in pediatric oncology. She said it’s been a lot of hard work to get to this point, but it’s been well worth it.
In the spirit of the day, Neal dedicated the new building to the faculty, staff and students, like Kees, at the SKYCTC health campus who make their nursing program so successful.
Isenberg thanked the community, the Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce, city leadership including Judge-Executive Davie Greer and Mayor Rhonda Trautman and Sally Ray, Western Kentucky University-Glasgow chancellor, for a good partnership to support students at the SKYCTC Glasgow Health Campus.
“We’re all in this together,” Isenberg said. “This doesn’t work unless we support each other.”
