Rend Lake College improves nursing program | News

INA, ILLINOIS (KFVS) - Rend Lake College has dedicated more space to the Ina campus nursing program, and say they have increased fall enrollment by 33 percent.

According to RLC President Terry Wilkerson, the nursing program has experienced growing demand every year. The campus had to increase facilities or risk having to turn away applicants.

The old nursing lab was designed to teach about 45 students in the Practical Nursing Program. The program has expanded to double the LPN capacity and add the Associate Degree nursing program. The programs have 160 available slots and are full every year.

The construction project moved classrooms and lab space from the Science Building to the first and second floors of the Learning Resource Center. The move doubled the amount of classroom space available to students and improved the lab environment.

According to RLC, it's about the same amount of lab space as before, but now there are three separate labs instead of one open space. It gives the faculty more flexibility to teach different curriculum.

RLC's Physical Plant staff completed 95 percent of the work. Nearly 6,000 square feet was renovated for less than $50,000, less than $9 a foot. Out of pocket expenses were cut in half by doing the work in house.

The classrooms and labs are ready for students to use in the fall semester, which starts August 13. Only some minor sign updates and shuffling of offices remain to be done. The empty lab space in the Science Building is being dedicated to new science labs. RLC has submitted a federal grant application for that project.

For more information about RLC's Allied Health programming see www.rlc.edu/allied-healthhttp://www.rlc.edu/allied-health, or by calling 618-437-5321 ext. 1251.

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