If Gov. Don Carcieri is to make good on his promise to create 20,000 good-paying new jobs during his tenure, he will have to tap into a wide spectrum of industry sectors.
The governor’s emphasis, for example, on the defense industry – and in particular technology companies that do business in it – makes sense. We suspect that such an approach will pay dividends.
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We also see opportunity for real job creation within Rhode Island’s health care sector, especially for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses. And the quickest way to seize that opportunity may be by investing in the two-year nursing programs offered at the Community College of Rhode Island.
CCRI offers two-year RN and LPN programs and the waiting list to get into them is long. But for those who complete the programs, nursing jobs – particularly in long-term health facilities – are plentiful.
Hugh J. Hall, administrator at West View Health Care Center in West Warwick and president of the Rhode Island Health Care Association, sees the potential for real job creation through CCRI programs.
“We’re in a deep nursing crisis in this state and we are not going to get out of it unless something dramatic is done very soon,” he said. “We could use 2,000 nurses today. … We need to focus our energies on the quickest production – and that would be CCRI.”
What Hall is suggesting is really not all that dramatic. It’s actually quite reasonable – which is what makes it so exciting.
So what needs to be done? CCRI needs money to bring in more professors, specifically, nursing instructors.
“We would like to think that the Legislature has the ability to find the money,” said Hall. “Whether it is money re-directed within the college system, or … ”
So would we – though re-directing existing dollars would probably cause a protracted firestorm of debate. Our colleges and state university already consider themselves to be under-funded – and they make a good argument on that point.
What really needs to happen is that someone in the Legislature needs to get in touch with the folks at CCRI and run the numbers.
Hall and others in the long-term care community believe an investment in the CCRI nursing program would make sense.
“The care giving isn’t going to stop,” said Hall. “This problem is not going to go away.”
If it could help the governor get to that coveted 20,000 figure, it’s worth looking into.
