Central Louisiana Technical Community College plans to add a fourth Practical Nursing Cohort at the Alexandria Campus for the 2025 spring semester, according to a news release. This is due to increased demand by students seeking to become Practical Nurses and from area healthcare providers looking for trained PNs.
The new cohort will be part of 14 cohorts providing nursing education to an additional 200 nursing students, states the release. It represents over a "50 percent growth in capacity in response to Cenla healthcare providers’ immediate demand for additional nurses." For the academic year, more than 400 PN students will have enrolled in CLTCC during the 2024-25 academic year.
"CLTCC believes this timing is critical to responding to meet the critical demand of Cenla’s healthcare providers including hospitals, physicians, retirement homes, and convalescent homes," the release said
“We are excited to be able to expand our Practical Nursing education opportunities in Central Louisiana, not just to provide additional educational opportunities for students, but to support the nursing needs of the healthcare providers in the region,” said Dean of Nursing and Allied Health Mignonne Ater in the release.
CLTCC is one of the largest providers of PN training in the state, Ater said.
“CLTCC is known as the ‘Powerhouse of Practical Nursing education’ in Louisiana,” Ater said. “This fall, we have 443 Practical Nursing students across our five campuses. Of that, 200 are new students in their first semester, which is really phenomenal.”
According to the release, CLTCC currently offers 13 Practical Nursing classes across its five campuses. Ten of those are day classes, with two at each campus, and there are three night classes — one in Alexandria, one in Ferriday and one at the Huey P. Long Campus in Winnfield. For the fall semester, each campus was configured to accept up to 40 new Practical Nursing students. Ater said when this fall’s PN class eligible applications were tallied, CLTCC Alexandria Campus received over 40 more than the school had existing capacity for, creating a waiting list.
Recognizing the need for an additional class, CLTCC applied to the Louisiana State Board of Practical Nurse Examiners for approval to offer an additional cohort, the release said. In addition, CLTCC reached out to The Rapides Foundation to request a reallocation of unused grant funds from the 2022 Healthcare Occupations Program Grant to assist with the additional funding needed to provide the additional cohort. Students who enroll in the new cohort will begin classes in January of 2025 with graduation scheduled for mid-2026 — an accelerated timeframe.
Applications are being taken for the upcoming semester. For information about enrollment visit www.CLTCC.edu/apply . For more information, contact the school via email at info@cltcc.edu or call 800-278-9855.
“We are so grateful to everyone who has made this possible, including the LSBPNE, The Rapides Foundation, Dean Ater and everyone with our Nursing and Allied Health program, and all of our local healthcare partners,” said CLTCC Chancellor Dr. Jimmy Sawtelle in the release. “Presently, there is a critical demand for trained nursing professionals. We’re excited to see the growing enrollment in this critical field from students here in Central Louisiana, and I am thrilled our partners have so generously provided the support necessary for us to be able to add a cohort to serve the needs of our students as well as our local healthcare providers and the citizens of Central Louisiana who will be served by these nurses.”
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: CLTCC taking applications for Practical Nursing cohort set for 2025 spring semester
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