The Austin Community College District is partnering with St. David’s Medical Center and other Texas community colleges to train health care workers statewide, thanks to a $2.5 million grant from the Texas Workforce Commission.
The grant participants received the funds during a check presentation on Wednesday.
“Through this grant, ACC will train hundreds of St. David’s workers in Central Texas,” says Mike Midgley, ACC’s vice president of instruction. “And that’s not just good for St. David’s. A strong, knowledgeable health care workforce benefits us all.”
ACC’s portion of the Skills Development Fund grant is $879,633. The college will use that funding to provide more than 15,000 hours of training to workers from St. David’s Georgetown Hospital, Round Rock Medical Center, North Austin Medical Center, St. David’s Medical Center, St. David’s Rehabilitation Center, and South Austin Medical Center. ACC will also provide online training for two El Paso hospitals.
The trainees include registered nurses and licensed vocational nurses who will earn certifications in a variety of medical specializations. The college is tasked with further developing the knowledge of new nurses, upgrading the skills of experienced nurses, and enhancing the instructional abilities of nurse educators. Following the training, the workers are expected to earn an average $30.77 per hour.
“Training health care workers is one of the things ACC does best, and this grant gives us an opportunity to train even more of them throughout the area,” says Midgley.
The consortium of participants includes Hospital Corporation of America institutions, Universal Health Services, and a number of other community college systems.
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By Linda Figg November 15, 2010 - 11:57 pm
Hi, I am wondering if you are going to be doing any EMS training in this grant? It is for a family member that I am inquiring. I do not know the requirements for someone that is an EMS trained person, but I am sure it probably quite a lot of training. Can you get back to me? Thanks,
Linda
By ACC Staff November 16, 2010 - 12:51 pm
Linda, local training through this grant is available only to employees of St. David’s. For more information on ACC’s Emergency Medical Services Professions Department, please visit http://www.austincc.edu/health/emsp/.
By Diane Buhl November 20, 2010 - 9:00 am
Hello,
Wow, what wonderful and exciting news! I’m a current ACC student working towards my Nursing Degree. My understanding from reading the article above is the grant will be used to train CURRENT nurses in the workforce and CURRENT nurses in a specific specialty ONLY, is that correct?
Would I be able to benefit from this grant as, a current student and wanting to start working towards my direct area of interest now?
Will this impact the time frame of current students working to get into the nursing program? Just wondering if there will be an increase in nursing program staff to help accommodate for additional training they will have to provide.
Where can I find additional information on the specifics of the grant?
Thank you dearly for your time and energy in answering my questions.
Much Appreciative,
Diane Buhl
By ACC Staff December 1, 2010 - 4:53 pm
Diane, local training through this grant is available only to employees of St. David’s. The training will not have an impact on student admission to ACC’s Nursing Program or progress of nursing students.