Cape Coral Technical College adapts nursing program to pandemic safety

NCH is recruiting for clinical positions, saying it needs help vaccinating Southwest Florida and that you should consider helping out and applying for a job.

Cape Coral Technical College is one place you might attend to gain the skills necessary for that application. It says its outstanding instructors and affordability sets the college apart, and that, because of the pandemic, its graduates will get jobs quickly because of that high demand for help.

“The pandemic hasn’t really impacted our placement rates because there’s a need,” said Charlie Pease, director of Cape Coral Technical College. “Lee Health has a huge need for nursing assistants. We have a great nursing assistant program for practical nurses. So there really hasn’t been much of an impact when it comes to placement.”

While the pandemic might not impact students’ placement, it did affect the way they learn.
Inside their classrooms, you’ll see students wearing face masks and face shields and working on mannequins. The college says it’s put a huge emphasis on technology, relying on simulations to help students complete their clinicals.

“One of the things they’re doing a little bit differently is their clinicals are simulated,” Pease said. “So we have a lot of high-tech software through a program called ATI that they use. And the lab is completely simulated. They still get in there and they work together, but they actually aren’t in the hospitals doing their clinicals.”

Pease says Cape Coral Tech actually has a 100% placement rate for graduating students.