Leanna Lehman
Western Nevada College (WNC) launched construction on a renovation project to convert the Piñon Building on its Fallon campus into a dedicated Nursing and Allied Health training facility, with a kick-off event last week.
Kyle Dalpe, president of Western Nevada College, said the nursing cohort has spent the past five and a half years in what was meant to be a temporary academic skills lab. “They were put there as a temporary accommodation, and it’s been five and a half years, they’ve made it work. I appreciate the faculty and the students.”
The Piñon Building was previously leased to Oasis Academy. When the lease ended, the college converted it into a permanent home for nursing and Allied Health programs.
To fund the renovation, WNC secured a $2.3 million directed federal appropriation through the Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA. The funding originated in the final year of the Biden administration and must be expended by Sept. 30, so the majority of the renovation will be complete by that time.
Dalpe credited Nevada’s federal delegation, including U.S. Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto and U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, for supporting the appropriation. He also added that funding from the last two legislative sessions will support program development and staffing as the state works to address its rural health care worker shortage.
Chief Advancement Officer for WNC and Nursing and Allied Health department instructor Niki Gladys thanked the William N. Pennington Foundation for a generous $1 million donation toward the renovation, and the A.P.L. Ford Foundation, which also contributed to the project.
Currently, the Fallon campus nursing program has a limit of eight seats. The college hopes to gradually expand that number to 24 students. “We have capacity, but we haven’t built up for the capacity,” Dalpe explained.
Dalpe said Fallon is well-positioned to attract students not only from the Churchill County community but also from Mineral and Douglas Counties. Reducing travel barriers is especially important in rural communities. While the initial focus will be on nursing, the renovation may also support phlebotomy, certified nursing assistant, and potentially emergency medical services training.
“Online learning is not for everybody. And some disciplines are more suited to that,” Dalpe said. “You can’t teach somebody how to put in an IV virtually only so many times before you actually need to stick a needle.”
The move will also allow the current academic skills center and library space, which has housed the nursing cohort, to return to broader campus use. When possible, Dalpe said that space will be renovated to better serve tutoring and library needs.
Dalpe said demand for nurses remains strong statewide, citing retirements and burnout following the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re never not going to need nurses,” he said. “We need them now more than ever.”
During the kickoff event on Feb. 18, Gladys and Dalpe thanked faculty, staff, students, and local partners, including Churchill County and the City of Fallon, for their letters of support during the grant process.
City Councilwoman Kelly Frost is happy that nursing students will soon gain their dedicated learning space. “I'm excited that they can expand the opportunities to young people in our community and have larger cohorts because we definitely need health care professionals in the rurals, so it's a very important project for our community,” Frost said.
“It's another important asset to our community as we grow and move into the future,” County Commissioner Eric Blakey said. “It's going to give other people who didn't have the opportunity, or can't afford to travel, to come to school ready to get a new career started. And, hopefully, we retain them right here in the community.”
The project is an investment not only in health care education, but in the rural communities the campus serves, said Dalpe. “We’re investing in WNC, but more importantly, we’re investing in the community here.”
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