(Butler, PA) A new Butler County Community College associate degree program that prepares students for admission to selective two- and four-year programs in health care professions has become one of the college’s highest in enrollment.
BC3’s 60-credit health care science program follows only general studies and Nursing, R.N., in fall enrollment among the college’s 54 associate degree programs, said Sharla Anke, assistant dean of institutional research and planning.
Graduates of BC3’s new program can transfer to a selective-admission bachelor’s degree program in a health care profession at a four-year college or university, said Dr. Patty Annear, dean of the college’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health.
Students can also be considered for selective-admission career programs at BC3 in medical assistant; Nursing, R.N.; physical therapist assistant; or in technical trades-massage therapy management option, Annear said.
“This provides a strong foundation to prepare students for a health care profession,” Annear said, “and it has good transferability.”
Foundational courses within the health care science program include descriptive chemistry, general microbiology, human anatomy and physiology I and II, and medical terminology, Annear said.
More workers were employed in health care and social assistance in Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Clearfield, Lawrence and Mercer counties in June than in any other industry, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry’s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis. Health care and social assistance employed the second-most number of workers in Elk and Jefferson counties in June, according to the report.
Health care science program “responds to needs”
The college’s new program also includes courses in human growth and development, medical law and ethics, and principles of nutrition.
The curriculum includes many courses required in BC3 selective-admission career programs in medical assistant; Nursing, R.N.; physical therapist assistant; or in technical trades-massage therapy management option.
Nearly 250 BC3 students were enrolled this spring in those career programs, Anke said.
Medical assistants, registered nurses and physical therapist assistants are among high-priority occupations in the Northern Tier, West Central and Tri-County workforce development areas.
Those workforce development areas include Armstrong, Butler, Clearfield, Elk, Jefferson, Lawrence and Mercer counties.
The health care science program “responds to the needs of the community in that we are providing the foundation for those health care careers that are so abundant in the area,” Annear said.
For more information about BC3’s health care science program, visit bc3.edu/health-care-science.
