Odessa Regional Medical Center has donated $15,000 to Odessa College’s health career programs for additional equipment in the Health Sciences Building to provide real-life experiences in health professions and scholarships.
Vice President for Instruction Valerie Jones said Odessa College talks a lot with the community about the importance of partnerships with employers, community partners and the college so entities like Odessa Regional can tell the college of their future needs in health care and the college can prepare curriculum for those practitioners of tomorrow.
The funds will go to the Odessa College Foundation.
“We need more folks to be able to go into the healthcare professions, to be highly trained, to be expert professionals and to be able to serve this community,” Jones said. “Scholarships help make that possible for folks so that financial restrictions are not a barrier to access for them. Once they get here, they have to have the most current technology; they have to have the relevant equipment; they have to be able to train in real-world experiences so that when they go into the real world and they’re helping you and me and our families in the hospitals and the facilities where we need them most, they’re prepared. …”
Stacey Gerig Brown, president of Odessa Regional, said Tuesday the hospital appreciates OC’s support of education of medical professionals and hopes the donation will help those who might not otherwise have a chance for schooling in the various healthcare fields.
Brown said the hospital hopes to employ a lot of OC graduates in the different areas of specialty, such as nursing, phlebotomists and emergency medical technicians.
“Our biggest need is always in nursing. As you know, there’s a national shortage of nurses so we’re always very interested in helping them in terms of their internships and those things when they’re doing their clinicals. We hope to build relationships with them at that time so we can eventually hire them once they complete their training to help us fill vacancies,” Brown said.
Odessa College President Gregory Williams thanked ORMC for its generosity.
“… This is the lifeblood of what we do because we would hate for dollars to stand in the way of amazing people being able to do wonderful work. And for many in our community, that is the barrier,” Williams said. “There are people who would like to accomplish things, but their finances don’t allow it. They don’t think they can afford to go to school. They don’t think they can afford to take that step.”
However, there are grants and scholarships available to students, he added.
“We owe not only ORMC, but we owe this entire community our very best. And guess what, when we give our very best they give back to us,” Williams said.
