(Butler, PA) Site preparation is under way for what the general contractor calls the “eye-popping” centerpiece of the largest construction project in Butler County Community College history – a state-of-the-art, hospital-like facility that will prepare graduates of BC3 health care programs for high-priority occupations in western Pennsylvania.
Excavators and bulldozers from Mark Thomas Trucking and Excavating, Butler, are “moving tons and tons of dirt” in advance of the construction of the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building, which will “definitely change the skyline of BC3,” said Shawn Glancy, project manager for general contractor R.A. Glancy and Sons, Gibsonia.
The location of the oxygen in a patient’s room at Butler Memorial Hospital “is where you are going to find it in our simulation,” Annear said. “We are going to have similar beds. Similar headboards. EKG technology. Monitors. IV pumps. Where the light switch is going to be.
“Students can practice in that nonthreatening simulated environment so that when they do get into a hospital, they have that experience and hopefully will be able to function at a higher level because they’ve had that practice opportunity.”
BC3 president: “It is high tech. It is simulation”
Veda Reiser, of Saxonburg, was a student speaker at a ceremonial groundbreaking for the facility in late October.
“BC3, from my experience, has already offered extraordinary simulation,” Reiser said. “But I know it is going to be even better for (future) students and offer even better learning experiences.”
The Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building is expected to open in fall 2023.
Like Reiser, Lily Keller, of Sandy Lake, expects to be among the 58 students who graduate from BC3 in May with an associate degree in Nursing, R.N.
When she first heard about plans for the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building, Keller said she thought, “‘Oh my gosh.’ … And then I was like, ‘There’s no way it’s going to be built by the time I’m done.’ So that’s kind of a bummer. But that’s super-exciting for anyone else who actually gets to go into that building. … A little jealous.”
The $14 million Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building is part of a $21 million south campus construction project that began in June 2020. It will house the college’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health, which is currently located in BC3’s business and health professions building.
“It is a different type of facility,” Dr. Nick Neupauer, president of BC3, said of what will be the one-story, 25,000-square-foot Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building. “It’s a different type of space. It is high-tech. It is simulation. It is space that very much accommodates not only a 21st-century institution of higher education, but more specifically, a 21st-century Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health.
“It is a different type of space that we do not have here, space that will really fall in line with our larger ‘all-in for nursing.’”
“BC3, from my experience, has already offered extraordinary simulation. But I know it is going to be even better for (future) students and offer even better learning experiences.”
Programs meet many high-priority occupations
BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health offers associate degrees in the career programs of health care science; medical assistant; Nursing, R.N.; physical therapist assistant and technical trades-massage therapy management option. It also offers certificate or workplace certificate programs in massage therapy, medical assistant, medical coding and billing specialist and in practical nursing.
Students in BC3 career programs can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation.
Among 2022 high-priority occupations through July 31 in a Tri-County Workforce Development Area that includes Butler County are medical assistants, medical records and health information technicians, licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, and registered nurses.
BC3’s south campus project included the construction of a 10,000-square-foot operations building.
The operations building replaced a century-old shipping and receiving facility, built when the Oak Hills Golf Course was located on what became BC3’s main campus in Butler Township, and the college’s 28-year-old maintenance building.
The shipping and receiving facility and maintenance building were located on the site where the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building will be constructed.
The BC3 Education Foundation as of March 17 received $5.8 million in private commitments or contributions or pledges from 51 donors toward construction of the facility.
The Janice Phillips Larrick Charitable Trust, former state Sen. Tim Shaffer, Concordia Lutheran Ministries and an anonymous donor have each contributed $1 million toward construction of the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building and Grove City College, $500,000.
BC3 created a partnership in 2019 with Grove City College and in 2020 with Concordia Lutheran Ministries.
Grove City students began technical and clinical training in fall 2021 at BC3 as part of the Mercer County private institution’s one-plus-two-plus-one bachelor of science degree in nursing. Grove City students will attend classes at Grove City in the first and fourth years of the program, and at both institutions in the second and third years.
BC3’s practical nursing program debuted in January as part of an up to $10 million partnership between the college and Concordia Lutheran Ministries.
The Cabot-based health care provider’s commitment to BC3 will also expand the college’s registered nursing enrollment and offer tuition assistance to nursing students who agree to work for Concordia after graduation.
Project manager: “A really, really cool facility”
Where today are only “mounds of dirt” and “mud for miles,” Glancy, the project manager, can envision from his construction trailer the architecture of the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building, with “a lot of glazing, storefront walls,” he said. “Eastern hemlock natural-wood siding. Louvered panels. Exposed architectural steel. Metal panel work.
“It is going to be a really, really cool facility.”
In April, said Brian Opitz, BC3’s executive director of operations, “You’ll start to see the building come out of the ground.”
Crystal Dull, a mother of five from Vandergrift, expects to graduate with Reiser and Keller in May with an associate degree in Nursing, R.N.
“Not only are you going to have the newer equipment and things (but) I think that they have wonderful instructors here,” said Dull, who 10 years ago earned a certificate in medical assistant from BC3.
“I’ve been to many different colleges. I’ve taken courses, different places. And the instructors here, they really do care. They really do push you. They want to know they are going to put out a good nurse, a skilled nurse. You can have a wonderful building, but you also have to have those instructors in there who can make that building glow even more.
“And I think that BC3 has that here.”
A health care programs information session will be held in Succop Theater on BC3’s main campus from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. April 5 as part of the college’s open house. The open house is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
