Photo: Wallace State Community College President Vicki Karolewics accepts a $2,500 donation from Cherie Rodgers, clinical liaison at Hanceville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
HANCEVILLE – Wallace State Community College’s Department of Nursing Education received a welcome gift recently with a $2,500 donation from one of its partner facilities. Hanceville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center presented the donation earlier this month.
Hanceville Nursing and Rehab and Wallace State have a longstanding relationship, as it is one of many facilities in the area where Wallace State Nursing students receive clinical training. The facility is also staffed with many Wallace State graduates, said Michael Vickers, administrator at Hanceville Nursing and Rehab.
“Wallace State enjoys many productive partnerships with members of the business and industrial community,” said Wallace State president, Dr. Vicki Hawsey Karolewics. "It is especially rewarding, however, when stakeholders such as Hanceville Nursing Home and Rehab Center choose to invest in the continuing quality of the program in a significant way. We are able to continue to provide quality graduates to the workforce of this region because of the investments by partners such as Mr. Vickers.”
“It’s been an ongoing relationship for decades,” Vickers said. “It’s a give and take. Wallace State trains the people we need and we try and serve the community by providing jobs. We relish the opportunity to have a relationship with the School of Nursing and try to employ their graduates. We’ve had a high success rate [with WSCC graduates]. I think they enjoy being here and growing and learning.”
“On behalf of the Department of Nursing Education, I want to express my thanks to Mr. Vickers and the staff at Hanceville Nursing and Rehab,” said Deborah “Pepper” Hoover, director of the college nursing programs. “We treasure the relationship we have with their facility as both a training ground for our students and as an employer of our graduates. The knowledge and experience they share with our students and graduates is invaluable.”
The Wallace State Nursing program offers a three-semester certificate program in Practical Nursing and a five-semester Associate Degree Nursing program. A new curriculum instituted this fall allows students who successfully complete the first three semesters of the program to sit for the licensure exam to be a Licensed Practical Nurse and continue seamlessly through the next two terms to finish the Associate Degree Nursing degree.
For more information about Wallace State, visit www.wallacestate.edu or call 256-352-8000.