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Speaking from inside a cavernous Arcata Bottoms warehouse this afternoon, state Senator Mike McGuire unveiled a $10 million funding to remodel the expansive constructing right into a state-of-the-art well being care instructional hub for Cal Poly Humboldt and College of the Redwoods.

“The North Coast has some of the most acute shortages of health care professionals and nurses in California,” McGuire stated. “We’ve expanded the pipeline for nurses here on the North Coast by launching the licensed vocational nurse-to-registered-nurse program in Del Norte County at the College of Redwoods Crescent City campus. … Even with all of this progress expanding the health care workforce, we needed a home and that is why we are in a warehouse this morning.”

For years, Cal Poly Humboldt has used the 30,000-square-foot warehouse, positioned on Samoa Boulevard, as a storage facility. In the subsequent two to a few years it’ll home “the most modern learning lab between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oregon border.”

“It will be the epicenter for training North Coast health care leaders and the workforce of tomorrow,” McGuire stated. “This health care education hub will house amazing health care labs, classrooms, as well as conference rooms all specially designed to train not just nurses but respiratory therapists, radiology techs, psychiatric techs and more.”

McGuire credited College of the Redwoods President Keith Flamer and Cal Poly Humboldt President Tom Jackson Jr. for main the cost on the brand new well being care hub. 

“We clearly understand that we can do much more to help our students if we work together and not separately,” Flamer stated. “This health care education hub is just another example of the wonderful work that [President] Jackson and Cal Poly Humboldt have been able to do in the last four years. … There’s a lot more room to expand for our community partners and other health care areas that we don’t yet have or we haven’t even dreamed of.”

Jackson shared Flamer’s sentiment and provided “a very, very, very big thank you” to McGuire for serving to to make the well being care hub a actuality.

“The things that you are able to do for this region and its campuses rarely go unnoticed,” he stated. “CR and Cal Poly Humboldt have … a connectedness that is centered on serving this region and the students that learn here. … We intend to create a thriving health care program. This facility and the joint academic programs that are a part of it helped us to do just that.”

There had been a number of aspiring and practising registered nurses current throughout at the moment’s announcement. McGuire highlighted one girl particularly, Regina Taylor, who was among the many first to graduate from Cal Poly Humboldt with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

“I can’t say enough about the faculty at both [CR and Cal Poly Humboldt],” Taylor stated. “The faculty is there to assist us through thick and thin, through laughter and crying. … They prepared me to enter the medical field with confidence and the foundation to be the best nurse that I am. I am fortunate to say I have recently accepted a position at Redwood Coast PACE as an RN.”

Keep scrolling for extra footage of at the moment’s announcement!