Fayetteville Technical Community College celebrated the completion of Phase I of its new Nursing Education and Simulation Center with a ribbon-cutting on Dec. 15.
Phase I includes 32 hospital beds in spacious state-of-the-art simulation labs as well as study rooms and meeting spaces, all on the first floor. The space was created through a $2 million renovation of the College’s former childcare center at 2340 Hull Road. Classrooms are located on the second floor of the building.
Phase II will consist of an annex that is to be built next door, with offices and meeting rooms.
FTCC’s Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) and Practical Nursing (PN) programs will begin operating out of the new center in January.
Until now, those programs have had to share space with 16 Allied Health programs in FTCC’s Health Technologies Center (HTC).
The new building means the nursing programs won’t have to scramble for lab space and can leave setups in place instead of having to regularly break them down and then reconstruct them. It also means more space at the HTC for the College’s growing Allied Health division.
The new Nursing Education and Simulation Center also provides space for possible expansion of FTCC’s nursing program. The College will have 269 students in its ADN program in January, near its currently permitted maximum of 280. In response to significant regional need and demand, FTCC hopes to expand that capacity to 400.
The College also has 45 students in its PN program.
Funding for the $2 million renovation came from a variety of philanthropic sources, including $961,300 from the Golden LEAF Foundation and $250,000 from Cumberland Community Foundation (CCF). Mary Holmes, CCF’s president and CEO, said she was so impressed by the facility when she came to tour it that she decided to make a personal gift as well.
“As many of us know,” Holmes said about hospital stays, “it’s not the surgeon who makes the experience. It’s the nurse.”
The lobby of the new nursing center is named for CCF founder Dr. Lucile West Hutaff and one of the labs for the founders of the first five community endowments at CCF. They are: Rachel W. and J.S. Harper; Elizabeth E. and Thomas R. McLean; Mary Y. and Walter C. Moorman; Iris M. and James M. Thornton; and Mary B. and Wilson F. Yarborough. The lactation room is named for Holmes’ mother, Mary Yarborough Moorman.
Sandy Ammons, executive director of FTCC Foundation, said the project would not have been possible without the philanthropic support.
Funding for the project also came from the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund.
Eleven people helped cut the ribbon to open the new center. N.C. Rep. Diane Wheatley, a registered nurse who earned her Associate Degree in Nursing at FTCC in the 1970s, held the scissors.
“We’re so happy for this facility,” Wheatley said. “What a great opportunity it will be for all the students it serves.”
Wheatley was accompanied at the ribbon-cutting ceremony by FTCC President Dr. Larry Keen, who is retiring on Jan. 1, and Dr. Mark Sorrells, who will take over as President in January after serving as Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Services. Also present: Mary Holmes of Cumberland Community Foundation; FTCC Dean of Nursing Dr. Murtis Worth; Brian Raynor, a member of the Golden LEAF board; Scott Hamilton, president and CEO of Golden LEAF; Sandy Ammons, executive director of FTCC Foundation; Michael Nagowski, CEO of Cape Fear Valley Health; FTCC Student Government Association President Angelina Robinson; and N.C. Sen. Kirk deViere.
