By Dr. Sunita Cooke Superintendent/President MiraCosta College
From a Surgical Technology Program that is one of just four offered at a community college in California to a new agreement between MiraCosta College and Point Loma Nazarene University that enables nursing students who graduate from MiraCosta to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Point Loma Nazarene without leaving the Oceanside Campus, MiraCosta College is taking the lead in training tomorrow’s health care workers today.
Good thing, too. Health care is among the fastest growing industries in the country.
An aging health care workforce combined with demand driven in part by the expansion of Medi-Cal and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act will result in an average of 9,230 job openings for registered nurses annually in California through 2022, according to state figures. Nationally, the number of registered nurse positions is expected to grow by more than 439,000 by 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported a median annual pay of almost $67,640 for the profession in 2014.
The future is just as bright for surgical technologists, whose job prospects are projected to increase by 15 percent by 2024. In California, the median wage for those in the profession exceeded $57,000 in 2014.
MiraCosta College’s comprehensive offering of health care programs also include training future certified nursing assistants, home health aides and licensed vocational nurses. In addition, a phlebotomy technician program at the recently opened Technology Career Institute in Carlsbad is attracting students from throughout the region.
“A lot of students with bachelor degrees in other fields are enrolling in our nursing program because of the small class sizes, the individualized attention and the excellent education,” said Sandy Comstock, MiraCosta College’s Associate Dean of Nursing and Allied Health. “It’s a challenging field but it is a very rewarding profession.”
Underscoring MiraCosta College’s commitment to the community, we have forged agreements for clinical experience opportunities at Tri-City Medical Center, Palomar Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente and Scripps Health. And in addition to our recent agreement with Point Loma Nazarene, MiraCosta College and Cal State San Marcos are into the fourth year of a program that guarantees graduates of our Registered Nursing Program can pursue their Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Cal State San Marcos
Ensuring student success and preparation for the workforce is our priority, which is why virtually every MiraCosta College graduate passes the National Council Licensure Examination needed to begin working as a nurse and the CNA exam to become a certified nursing assistant.
Best of all, students don’t have to spend seemingly endless years in college and graduate school to break into the health care field. The Phlebotomy Technician Program, for example, comprises approximately 80 hours of instruction and an additional 40 to 120 hours of clinical externship in a health-care setting. Once completed, students are eligible to take a certification examination offered by the National Health Career Association in class.
San Diego County is among the leading regions when it comes to health care research and education. And thanks to the community’s unwavering support over the years, MiraCosta College is among the leading educational systems in the region providing workforce training in this area.