ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997 TAG: 9704210048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: JOANNE POINDEXTER THE ROANOKE TIMES
The 18-month program is geared to high school seniors and adults who want to become licensed practical nurses.
Hundreds of students have graduated from the Bedford County School of Practical Nursing since the program was created three decades ago, and dozens work in area hospitals - 60 at Carilion Bedford Memorial.
Eleven more students are set to graduate Tuesday, but those commencement exercises could be the program's last.
The school's three instructors were told Tuesday their contracts will not be renewed and that it will be discontinued due to a lack of funding.
The nine first-year students in the program said they may have to delay completing their training because other programs are farther away and cost more.
"It's like they are pulling out my world from under my feet," first-year student Karen Childress said.
The students have cried, consoled each other, and called School Board members and School Superintendent John Kent to find answers.
The 18-month practical nurse program, one of the oldest offered through the Bedford Science and Technology Center, is geared to high school seniors and adults who want to become licensed practical nurses.
"We've all made sacrifices," said Pamela Craighead, who works as a medical assistant at a clinic three hours each morning before reporting to classes.
"Some of us, especially the younger ones, might not make it if we have to go to other programs," said Craighead, who will get an associate's degree as a medical assistant in June through another program. "We have this bond. We've been together the last nine months, and we encourage each other when things get hard."
She's afraid she will have to start over because other programs won't transfer her classes.
Craighead, who's wanted to be a nurse since she was a child suffering from asthma, said the first year of the practical nurses program has been more intense than the two years of her medical assistance program.
Students said the news is devastating not only for them, but also for the Bedford County community.
Graduates take a state exam to be licensed. The majority of them stay in the Bedford, Roanoke and Lynchburg area and work at nursing homes, clinics and hospitals.
Fifty of Bedford Memorial's licensed practical nurses, for example, graduated from the program. Ten of the hospital's registered nurses also completed it.
"They truly have provided a great service to the hospital and long-term care to this county. They have been wonderful in complementing our nursing services," Administrator Howard Ainsely said.
The hospital, he said, is assessing what impact eliminating the program will have on it.
The School Board is trying to cut $4.4million from its budget, and Kent said the nursing program is one of the first targeted because it is not required under the state's standards of quality.
The school system pays the salaries of the three instructors and between $1,600 and $1,800 for instruction materials. The hospital furnishes classroom space, some equipment and materials, said Pat Sherman, principal at the Bedford Science and Technology Center.
The cost of textbooks is defrayed by scholarships from the Bedford Community Health Foundation. Students buy the uniforms and some personal equipment.
Non-Bedford County residents pay tuition that totals about $1,800 for the two years.
Several Bedford students said they think the program has been targeted because it's primarily an adult education program.
Only two high school students are enrolled as first-year students this year. Second-year students, who attend all-day classes and do clinical training at the hospital, traditionally have been recent high school graduates or adults who had been out of school several years.
Carolyn Roaf, program director and instructor Ardith Gillespie - both registered nurses - said they haven't given much thought to what they will do if the program is discontinued.
They've been more concerned about their students.
"I always tell [students] they will always get a job: 'It may not be the shift or the facility you want, but you'll get a job.' I have to believe that myself now," Gillespie said.
Kent said the nursing program and the elementary art education program are the only two programs that will be eliminated if the School Board makes the cuts it's considering.
The five itinerant teachers in the art program may be offered other classroom jobs if they are qualified for other openings, he said. Regular classroom teachers will have to teach art if the program is eliminated.
The School Board submitted a $54.4million budget to the county Board of Supervisors, which reduced the request to $50million and increased real-estate taxes 9cents on each $100 of value to cover the school expenditures.
Kent said the system, while getting $2.7million more than this school term, will add between 220 and 240 new students, taking up at least $1million of that money.
The remaining money, he said, will not cover raises for the county's 1,248 school employees and other expenses.
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CARY BEST/THE ROANOKE TIMES. Bedford Memorial Hospitalby CNBLPN instructor, Carolyn Roaf (left) demonstrates care for newborns
to student Cheryl Arrington who holds 1-day-old Travis Lee Crouch.
color.