Yet another major donor has stepped up for Southwestern Michigan College’s nursing expansion project, and you’ll have to forgive them if they have a very vested interest in the project succeeding. The latest party to step forward for the community college community is Ascension Health Corporation’s Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital in Dowagiac.
The hospital is teeing up a $10,000 donation, with Chief Operating Officer John Ryder saying this week, “Borgess is very happy to support this project.” Speaking back on Monday with the board of trustees, Ryder said, “We see it as visionary. We’re happy to know it’s going to provide the latest in facilities and technology for the region. It’s going to serve the community well for years to come.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Borgess-Lee Memorial stands to benefit from the project with Ryder admitting, “We personally benefit from having a great nursing school like SMC has.” He went on to point out, “We see the need for well-qualified nurses. That’s a need that’s growing across the country. We’re experiencing that need ourselves across our system locally, in the region and even nationally as part of Ascension Health.”
Ascension is a St. Louis faith-based health care organization, and is the largest non-profit health system and largest Catholic health system in the United States.
Borgess-Lee is one of 141 hospitals in 24 states and Washington, D.C., for which Ascension Health is the parent company.
Ryder told board members at the Dowagiac campus, “There’s a strong need for well-qualified nurses.” He also recognized that “This project really supports that. Many of the excellent nurses we have are local residents who went to school at SMC and do a fine job for us. The technology of the simulation labs gives the ability to train nurses in situations they might experience infrequently.”
Meanwhile, Dr. David Mathews, who serves as President of SMC says, “In a typical OB rotation, a nursing student might see a baby born.” He added, “In simulation labs, they can birth as many babies as they want, be front-and-center in the process and have simulated abnormalities occur to prepare them as best you can before that really happens.”
Mathews tells us, “All health systems are faced with recruiting nurses.”
As a result, Mathews suggests, “One advantage of SMC nursing graduates is most are local residents who want to stay locally. You don’t have to sell them on our community. They’re already sold.” In fact, Mathews himself was born at Lee Memorial Hospital, and his late wife, Janet, had been a critical care nurse and nursing educator at the Dowagiac hospital.
Chief Nursing Officer Jan Troeger also notes, “The majority of leadership in the organization are SMC grads.” Troeger says, “We usually take any SMC grad we can because we know the high caliber of education they are provided.”
Mathews summed up the relationship by noting, “Just like I cannot imagine what Dowagiac would be like without Southwestern Michigan College, I cannot imagine what Dowagiac would be like without our local hospital.”
He then told colleagues and hospital officials, “We will be in the building either in fall 2018 or January 2019.” He adds, “We’re doubling the physical size of the building, so in addition to being able to expand the size of our nursing class from 40 to 56 students and continuing to offer health-related occupations, we’ll have space to offer occupational therapy assistant or physical therapy assistant, which we’re continuing to evaluate as possibilities.”
The project proceeds once construction contracts are awarded at a special Board of Trustees meeting set for 8 am, next Friday, July 21.
Instead of a traditional groundbreaking ceremony, there will be a “construction celebration” from 5:30 to 7:30pm Wednesday, September 6th, with state Budget Director Al Pscholka and several SMC nursing student representatives speaking.
Additionally, it was noted that the SMC Foundation insures all eligible students have financial access to college education. The non-profit, tax-exempt corporation established in 1970 bridges the financial gap between students’ needs and resources with scholarships.
To learn more about the foundation’s major gift initiative for the nursing expansion, visit www.swmich.edu/giving, or you can contact Executive Director Eileen Toney at: SMC Foundation, 58900 Cherry Grove Road, Dowagiac, MI 49047; (269) 782-1301; or etoney@swmich.edu.
