Butte College’s 58 registered nursing, 22 licensed vocational nursing, 29 respiratory therapy, 60 EMT’s, 17 paramedics, and 30 law enforcement cadets are breathing a collective sigh of relief as restrictions were lifted to allow students to finish their programs in May and June due to COVID-19. The Firefighter Academy has temporarily suspended training and plans to resume training for 43 fire cadets in June.
“For our registered nursing program alone, the state required 1,100 clinical hours, and luckily the legislative matter was resolved so our students can graduate and help as frontline workers where they are needed most,” said Laurie Meyer, Chair, Butte College Nursing Department. “We will now be able to admit 48 new registered nursing students, 30 licensed vocational nursing students and 12 LVN to RN transition students for a total of 90 new nursing students in Fall 2020 alone.”
The college plans to graduate 29 respiratory therapists who are trained to operate ventilators and can help COVID-19 patients directly said Donna Davis, Butte College Respiratory Therapy instructor.
“The remaining 33 students will be moving forward in the program, thanks to the efforts of the full and part time faculty modifying the program curriculum to ensure these students receive the content needed to be successful in the field. These efforts are also allowing the program to start a new cohort of 32 students this fall,” said Davis.
The college has been working closely with health care partners including Butte County EMS, Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Oroville Hospital, Mercy Medical Center in Redding, and Renown Medical Center in Reno.
"Our second-year respiratory therapy students have signed up for a hospital-wide volunteer pool established by Mercy Medical Center, Redding, as well as volunteering to assist the college’s respiratory therapy department if needed during the potential surge of Covid-19 cases. Renown Medical Center in Reno, NV is recruiting our second-year students as ‘respiratory extenders’ to assist the respiratory therapists during this difficult time,” said Davis.
To help with this pandemic, Butte College Health Occupations, comprised of Respiratory Therapy, Nursing, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS), donated all of the PPE it had available to Enloe Medical Center, along with several skilled nursing facilities, including Windsor Chico Creek, Windsor Care, Arbor Post Acute and Riverside. The donations included 2,385 N95 masks, 5,000 pairs of gloves, 250 shoe covers, 50 isolation gowns, 50 surgical gowns, and 6 latex-free PPE kits. Respiratory Therapy donated 4 ventilators to the State of California/CalOES.
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Butte College
3536 Butte Campus Drive
Oroville, CA 95965
Content editor:
Christian Gutierrez
530-895-2959
