(Butler, PA) A Butler County Community College practical nursing program re-established 3½ years ago to address a shortage in the high-priority occupation graduated its largest class Tuesday with 11 students from five western Pennsylvania counties.
Class of 2024 graduates ranging in age from 19 to 44 and from Allegheny, Butler, Lawrence, Mercer and Westmoreland counties received pins during a ceremony on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township to mark their completion of the yearlong selective-admissions program.
The college’s Class of 2023 had eight graduates from three counties and its Class of 2022, six graduates from two counties.
BC3’s Class of 2025 reached its capacity and will begin in January with 19 students from four counties.
“We are gaining serious traction,” said Julia Carney, director of practical nursing within BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health. “We prepare our practical nurses for every walk of nursing. Long-term care. Acute care. They get to see a little bit of everything, mental health, pediatrics, maternity, because licensed practical nurses are being hired everywhere.
“I get emails daily asking about our practical nursing program. People are highly interested in our practical nurses.”
“We prepare our practical nurses for every walk of nursing. Long-term care. Acute care. They get to see a little bit of everything, mental health, pediatrics, maternity, because licensed practical nurses are being hired everywhere."
“I will be graduating debt-free,” New Castle resident says
BC3’s is the only practical nursing program in Butler County.
As the baby-boom population ages, the overall need for health care services is expected to increase, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Licensed practical nurses will be needed in residential-care facilities and in home-health environments to care for older patients.
Licensed practical nurses provide basic medical care to ill, injured or convalescing patients or to persons with disabilities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The median annual wage for the position was $59,730 in May 2023, the most-recent information available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Licensed practical nurse is high-priority occupation in Allegheny, Butler, Lawrence, Mercer and Westmoreland counties, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry.
Discontinued in the mid-1980s, BC3’s program was re-established in partnership with Concordia Lutheran Ministries, Cabot. Concordia offers tuition assistance to BC3 practical and registered nursing students who agree to work for the health care provider after graduation.
Samantha Grieve, 38, of New Castle, is a 2004 graduate of Shenango Junior-Senior High School who worked six years as an activities aide at a skilled nursing and rehabilitation center.
The married mother of a 12-year-old son, Viktor, is among more than 20 BC3 graduates in practical or registered nursing since December 2022 whose tuition was sponsored by Concordia.
“I will be graduating debt-free,” Grieve said. “I don’t have to worry about finding a job. Concordia enabled me to just focus on school and nothing else. Having this paid for was a huge relief.”
Simulation labs in new facility “high-tech,” Mercer resident says
Class of 2024 practical nursing graduates completed clinical experiences at Concordia Lutheran Ministries; Independence Health System’s Butler Memorial Hospital, Butler; and at UPMC Passavant, Cranberry Township.
They also gained skills in simulation labs within the 25,000-square-foot state-of-the-art Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building that opened on BC3’s main campus in August 2023.
“It is high-tech,” said Heather Maurer, 42, of Mercer, who achieved a commonwealth secondary school diploma in 2002 and has worked as a medical secretary and as a certified medical assistant.
“I don’t have to worry about finding a job. Concordia enabled me to just focus on school and nothing else. Having this paid for was a huge relief.”
“If you have a patient crash on you, it gives you the chance to go through that scenario without actually being in that situation. It helps to know what you are getting yourself in to when that happens so you are not scrambling at the last second.”
Eighty-three percent of graduates in the college’s Class of 2022 in practical nursing passed the post-graduation National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses test within nine months of earning BC3’s 48- to 49-credit certificate.
One-hundred percent of graduates in BC3’s Class of 2023 passed the NCLEX-PN test.
“That is phenomenal,” Carney said. “Students work hard for that. It’s not easy.”
“If you have a patient crash on you, it gives you the chance to go through that scenario without actually being in that situation."
“I received the most thorough education at BC3,” Slippery Rock resident says
Breanne Stuebgen, 32, of Slippery Rock, is a 2011 graduate of Knoch High School who worked eight years as a certified nursing assistant.
“I received the most thorough education at BC3,” Stuebgen said. “I’m not sure if I would have received a better education anywhere else. I had fantastic teachers. The curriculum was fantastic. I learned more in a year than I thought I could possibly ever learn. But it was all things that will make me into a great nurse. And it is all because of the program.”
Added Mykenzie Cox, 21, of Parker, who was home-schooled and graduated in 2022: “I really liked the almost one-on-one aspect with the professors. They were able to help you extra. And it really prepared me to start in (BC3’s) registered nursing program.”
"I had fantastic teachers. The curriculum was fantastic. I learned more in a year than I thought I could possibly ever learn."
Joining Cox, Grieve, Maurer and Stuebgen in BC3’s Class of 2024 in practical nursing are Butler residents Margaret Caldwell, Colleen Dickson and Makenzie Reay; Kyle Ott, of Bairdford; Amanda Palmer, of New Kensington; Larkin Sollie, of Pittsburgh; and Macy Workman, of Portersville.
Students in BC3’s certificate programs such as practical nursing can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation.
High-priority occupations, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry, are job categories that are in demand by employers, have evolving skill needs and are likely to provide family-sustaining wages.
BC3 will begin to accept applications for its practical nursing Class of 2026 on June 1.
