Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 23 A U G U S T 1 9 , 2 0 1 9 F O C U S G R E AT E R B A N G O R / N O R T H E R N M A I N E C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » Bolstering the nursing workforce pipeline E A S T M I L L I N O C K E T — As demand for more nurses in Maine, continues to rise, educational institutions are responding with added programming to stave off a 3,200 statewide shortfall predicted for 2025. Starting this semester, students in the associate degree nursing program at Eastern Maine Community College will be spared the trouble of travelling far from home for their coursework or clinical training. They'll be able to do the former at the Katahdin Higher Education Center in East Millinocket and the latter at Millinocket Regional Hospital and other locations. "If we can train eight or nine new nurses living in this region, it's going to help the hospital in the next four or five years," Deb Rountree, EMCC's associate aca- demic dean, told Mainebiz. "People are aging out of the profession and looking to retire. That will help eliminate that." She said the program expansion should also save employers the trouble — and costs — of having to hire nurses from outside the region or even the state as well as provide job opportunities for people committed to staying in the region. While nursing students have typically had to travel to Bangor to finish their coursework, they'll now be able to do all that close to home, Rountree said. She said that's important given the large proportion of residents that work a couple of jobs, don't have adequate child care or reliable transportation, and can't always go to a campus an hour or more away. "We're fortunate the Higher Education Center can provide opportunities like this," she said. On a more general note, she said EMCC works with employers of all stripes to provide workforce development and training and said the region has a lot to offer companies looking to establish a presence there. "For a small rural area of the state that has had so many struggles, there are so many rich resources in this community," she added. Further north where the University of Maine campuses at Fort Kent and Presque Isle joined forces on an academic partnership last year, they plan to double the number of program slots this fall from 16 to 32. The program dispatches UMFK faculty to UMPI about 50 miles away so that students unable to travel to Fort Kent can pursue a four-year nursing program in Presque Isle but get their degrees from UMFK. Participants are UMPI students for the first two years and UMFK students for the remaining two. Over the next decade, the need for nurses is expected to grow substantially as the size of the state's 65-and-older population jumps by more than a third, just as a wave of nursing professionals in their 50s starts cutting back hours and heads into retirement. Renee Doble, Economic Development Specialist D'arcy Main-Boyington, Economic Development Director. BREWERMAINE.GOV/BIZ 1 A C A D I A C O M M O N S • 2 5 0 C O U N T Y R O A D W E S T B R O O K , M E 0 4 0 9 2 C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S T O W R I G H T- RYA N C O N S T R U C T I O N 2 0 1 8 A N N U A L S Y N E R G Y E X C E L L E N C E A W A R D F O R M A I N E Synergy Risk Management is a multi-disciplinary approach involving underwriting, claims and loss control professionals to help eligible policyholders reduce the frequency and severity of accidents and the exposures that lead to them. The Synergy Excellence Awards recognize one Acadia Synergy business customer in each state where Acadia operates. F O R W I N N I N G T H E Wright-Ryan Construction If we can train eight or nine new nurses living in this region, it's going to help the hospital in the next four or five years. — Deb Rountree EMCC's associate academic dean P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F E M C C EMCC students get hands-on clinical training.

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