S C T E CHN I CA L CO L L E G E S Y S T EM ’ S
F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
|
1 0 7
PRESIDENT HEAL THYSELF
We do.
The nurses caring for him achieved career dreams thanks to
him, others, and the system.
“I was fortunate to get all area hospitals to agree to scholar-
ships for every student admitted into the nursing program.”
“In return,” he continued, “the nursing student would com-
mit to two years at that particular hospital. And we doubled the
size of the nursing program. We had a 100 percent pass rate ev-
ery year on the state board RN exam, which was only matched
four of five years by Clemson. We did better than the medical
university (MUSC). We did better than the University of South
Carolina.”
The technical colleges’ response to the nursing shortage
opened other doors as Dr. Marilyn “Murph” Fore, senior vice
president for academic affairs at Horry-Georgetown Technical
College, recalls. “It was natural for us to expand into other allied
health areas: radiation tech, dental hygiene, nuclear medicine,
sonography, pharmacy, and physical therapist’s assistant.”
According to Cathy Novinger, “Healthcare is the largest em-
ployment base in theMidlands. Look at howmany employees we
train to go into hospitals. Look at the national boards our nurs-
ing students take and their scores versus four-year institutions.
And look at the waiting list.”
Rural areas benefit too. Novinger’s son is a doctor in Cheraw.
“He started a little practice as a country doctor, but it has grown.
He has three nurse practitioners and ten or fifteen others in the
office, and everybody who works for him other than the nurse
practitioners came from Northeastern Tech. I don’t know what
he’d do without it. So that’s huge in the rural areas. Huge.”
As the state’s population ages, more allied health professionals
will be needed. South Carolina promotes itself as a tourism and
retirement haven, and many tourists return to retire. The techni-
Dr. James Hudgins and Dr. Don C. Garrison
(president of Tri-County Technical College 1971-2003)
SC State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education meeting
(2010)
The 2000s
F L Y I N G H I G H
Dr. James Hudgins receiving the Order of the Palmetto award
(2005)
