A 44-year-old native of the Philippines who in 2007 suspended her pursuit of higher education in health care at Butler County Community College following the birth of her special-needs daughter is among the first students accepted in a BC3 practical nursing program that debuts today.

Yeng Carle, of Portersville, is the most senior of 10 students in BC3’s latest selective-admissions health care program.

The practical nursing program at BC3 is the only one in Butler County and is a result of a partnership forged in June 2020 with Concordia Lutheran Ministries, a Cabot health care provider.

The 12-month program is intended to prepare graduates for licensure in what is a high-priority occupation in Western Pennsylvania.

BC3 received Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing authorization in August to create the 48-credit certificate program on the college’s main campus.

“I am beyond excited to be part of the first student participants,” Carle said.

She moved permanently to the United States nearly 20 years ago. She later met the man who would become her husband, Brice Carle, of Cranberry Township.

Their daughter Lana was born with Alfi’s syndrome, a rare genetic disorder and a condition that required frequent trips to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Carle said.

“I chose to be a mom,” Carle said, “instead of pursuing my career goal.”

That career goal today, with Lana thriving in eighth grade, is to become a registered nurse, as was her mother-in-law, the late Donna Carle, a 1991 graduate of BC3’s Nursing, R.N., program.

Carle promised her cancer-stricken mother-in-law, for whom Carle also cared full time, that she would resume her pursuit of higher education in health care – “No matter what,” Carle said.

“I know in my heart,” Carle said, “that I was born to be a caregiver.”

Also seeking to become caregivers through BC3’s practical nursing program are students as young as 18 and who have worked in health care as certified nursing assistants, personal care aides and as first-aid instructors.

Their career goals include neonatal nurse practitioner, forensic nursing and registered nursing.

“I am very excited to get started and love to start small so I don’t get ahead of myself,” said Riss Rusnica, 21, of Nu Mine, who intends to become a neonatal nurse practitioner. “This program made that possible for me.”

Ariel Festa, 26, of Kittanning, wants to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing and become a forensic nurse.

“I heard great things about the registered nursing program at BC3,” she said, “and I believe the practical nursing program will be a great first step.”

Added Delanie Toy, 20, of Freeport: “I have always wanted to be a nurse, and as soon as I saw that BC3 was offering a practical nursing program, I had to jump at the opportunity.”

BC3 in June 2020 announced its plan to establish a practical nursing program as result of up to $10 million partnership with Concordia Lutheran Ministries that is intended to address a shortage in nursing.

Licensed practical nurse and licensed vocational nurse were 2021 high-priority occupations in the Tri-County and West Central workforce development areas, according to state Department of Labor & Industry.

Those areas include Armstrong, Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties.

The launch of the program, said Nick Neupauer, BC3 president, is “part of the college’s all-in for nursing. This program is so important, and very much needed with all that is going on in health care around us. We are looking forward to educating students for high-priority occupations.”

“The timing of the start of this program,” said Patty Annear, dean of BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health, “couldn’t be better. Right now we have a major nursing shortage and I believe that the practical nurse is going to start taking a little bit more of an active role at the bedside, and particularly in long-term-care nursing, where the shortages are the greatest.

“We are really trying to serve the community as best we can with nursing.”

Concordia is offering tuition sponsorship to BC3 practical nursing and registered nursing students who agree to work for the health care provider after graduation.

BC3 nursing students who receive one year of tuition sponsorship from Concordia will be committed to work for the health care provider for two years. Those who receive two years of tuition sponsorship will be committed to work for Concordia for three years.

More than 30 BC3 nursing students are receiving tuition sponsorship from Concordia, Annear said.

“We at Concordia are honored to be providing a free nursing education to the many practical nursing and registered nursing students who have committed to our program and to caring for those in our local communities,” said Keith Frndak, president and CEO of Concordia Lutheran Ministries.

“Our hope is that many more prospective students consider this field and take advantage of the opportunity to graduate debt-free, receive support along the way and have a great job lined up at one of the region’s top employers.”

Concordia Lutheran Ministries and Butler Memorial Hospital are among health care locations where BC3 practical nursing students will have clinical experiences beginning as early as mid-February, Annear said.

Clinical experiences will introduce practical nursing students particularly to the daily life of residents in long-term care, said Jessica Lasanich, director of BC3’s practical nursing program.

“Many of the students right now are nursing assistants or unit clerks by trade,” Lasanich said. “And now we have to have them progress into that nurse’s role, to look at the residents from a nursing perspective by furthering their assessment skills and starting to make that clinical judgment model of, ‘I’m now the one answering.’

The first students in BC3’s program, Lasanich said, “are so excited to be out in 12 months and advancing in that role.”

The median salary for licensed practical nurses and licensed vocational nurses in Armstrong, Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties in 2022 is $42,514, according to Emsi, a labor market research firm based in Idaho.

Licensed practical nurses and licensed vocational nurses, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, can monitor patients’ health, administer basic care, provide for basic comfort, report patients’ status and concerns to registered nurses and physicians, and keep records on patients’ health.

Licensed practical nurses and licensed vocational nurses work in skilled nursing facilities, continuing care retirement communities and assisted living facilities for the elderly, offices of physicians, home health and hospice.

BC3 practical nursing students who pass the post-graduation National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses could also enter BC3’s Nursing, R.N., program as second-year students.

That, Carle said, is her goal.

“Like me, my mother-in-law started her nursing program at BC3 later in life,” Carle said.

“That’s why she kept telling me, ‘Honey, you can do this.’”

For more information about BC3’s selective-admissions health care programs, visit bc3.edu/healthcare

For more information about Concordia’s tuition assistance program, visit bc3.edu/concordia

Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.