BUCKHANNON, W.Va.– Last week, West Virginia Wesleyan College president Dr. James Moore announced that they would start exploring the option of offering classes and programs in allied health fields at the former Alderson Broaddus University campus, and on Monday the president said on “Talkline” with Hoppy Kercheval that they will have to start small and then grow into bigger offerings.
The campus is now used for different events and performances but Battlers Knob LLC, the new managing entity, was ready to start using some of the other space and Moore wants the opportunity to offer more healthcare programs.
And Moore said that they still have a while to go before they begin offering anything at the former campus.
“We have a lot of research to do on our end, we have to engage our faculty about what these opportunities look like,” Moore said. “But we know the nursing need is great, we’ve been trying to expand our nursing program offerings, so we think there’s a chance to look at accelerated programs being offered there. And we recently completed a feasibility study for a physician assistant program.”
He also said to make the process easier, it will need to be taken in steps.
“I say within the next 12 or so months, it’s likely you’ll see us begin offering some specific classes or specific continuing education opportunities for working healthcare professionals like nurses and other folks. Longer term I could see it being a place where there are full-fledged programs offered there,” Moore said.
And as the demand for healthcare professionals rise, especially in the state, Moore said that he hopes with the offerings at the facility and working with the healthcare industry they can provide future nurses and doctors an opportunity to stay here in West Virginia.
“I’ll say this, whenever I speak with our healthcare partners, what they continue to tell us is that they can’t hire enough people,” Moore said. “We could graduate 20 people out of a program, they would hire all 20, we graduate 40, they would hire 40. Our big interest in all this though is, to try to work with the industry, in this case healthcare, to create more opportunities for people to stay in the state.”
He also said with the prospect of offering the classes and programs it’s to be determined on whether they will hire new faculty, but they won’t know until they talk with existing faculty.
“That’s where were going to have work closely with our faculty, I mean our faculty are incredibly invested in the students, but at the same time, being a professor is a workload,” Moore said. “So, if were thinking about expanding into full-fledged programs, we’re going to probably have to look to hire new faculty.”
He said the announcement was made as a call to action, for all healthcare partners because in order to start this process, the college needs support from their partners.