Redwoods nursing program restructures
CR has new staff, pathways for students
College of the Redwoods is attempting to expand the breadth of options available to students within its nursing program and has made administrative changes recently with two new leaders in the nursing department.
Jessica Howard is the new director of nursing, replacing Roberta Farrar, who is retiring, and Shauna Burdick has been the dean of nursing and allied health since October. The college also spent over $110,000 on new medical simulation mannequins and equipment in addition to planning to open a partnership facility with Cal Poly Humboldt at what is currently a storage warehouse in Samoa.
“We are planning on expanding and adding more programs, so in order to do that we needed an overall dean over the program,” Burdick said. “As we move forward and plan on co-locating with Cal Poly Humboldt to the Samoa building in the next couple of years, we will be adding more health care, health occupation programs.”
A few programs the college plans on adding include training for scrub techs, nurse navigators, site techs and possibly radiology and ultrasound options. The college is also changing its application from a lottery to a multi-criteria point system, expected to be implemented next year, Burdick said.
The Samoa facility is expected to be open and ready for use by students in 2025.
“We are excited about the restructuring of our nursing program,” College of the Redwoods President Keith Flamer said in a prepared statement. “The health care industry is constantly evolving, and it is our responsibility to prepare our students for the challenges they will face in their careers. We are confident that the changes we are making ensure that the community has access
to skilled health care professionals.”
Burdick came to the college with a 20-year nursing career and worked as an educator for Sutter Coast Hospital in Del Norte. Howard, who has taught at the college since 2011, received her vocational nursing degree from the college and worked as a nurse in the emergency departments at Mad River Community Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital.
Howard did not respond to a request for comment by the Times-Standard’s print deadline.
The college is attempting to graduate another cohort of nurses, and Burdick emphasized that local nursing students have several career options.
“There’s a vast array of jobs that are that nurses can do, we’re just giving them their nursing foundation,” Burdick said. “If they choose to get into a specialty, they can get that training within their new jobs, or they can continue on to get their BSN at Cal Poly Humboldt. There’s a lot of options for them right now.”