NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas U.S. Senator Jerry Moran was at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center Thursday afternoon to announce federal funding for a partnership between the healthcare system and Hutchinson Community College.
"A couple of years ago, the Senate and the House changed the rules," Moran said. "There was a period of about 10 years in which, what we used to call earmarks were banned. We didn't reinstate earmarks, but we now have Congressionally Designated Spending. We are utilizing that opportunity, money that would be spent somewhere in the budget someplace in some state or congressional district elsewhere to try to make certain that those dollars find their way to Kansas."
A significant amount of those dollars are coming to Hutchinson.
"I am here to announce a Congressionally Designated Spending of $3 million to Hutchinson Community College for purposes of nursing education. President Carter File can describe better than I how the money will be spent, but it is mostly designed to increase the space available and increase the laboratory capabilities of the nursing program. My understanding is that this $3 million, when it's completed, will allow for 20 additional students to participate in nursing education at Hutchinson Community College."
File clarified that it is an additional 20 slots per year in the nursing program at HutchCC.
"There is not a community in Kansas, there's not a hospital in Kansas, there's not a health care provider in Kansas who doesn't wish we had more nurses," Moran said. "This is an opportunity for us to combine a very important institution, Hutchinson Community College, to this community, with another very important institution to this community, Hutchinson Regional Medical Center."
Moran said the money will be available to the college in September to work on the expansion of space at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center for students to use for lab work with simulators that can give them the feel of live patients without risk to patients while they are learning.