CFCC names new nursing director amid leadership transition
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — With the fall semester now underway at Cape Fear Community College, new students are filling classrooms and campuses, but it’s not just students seeing changes this semester, as there are some internal changes happening at the college as well.
Cape Fear Community College officials are pushing back against allegations that the former director of the college’s associate degree nursing program was forced to retire.
Brenda Holland, recently stepped down from her role as nursing program director. Several people contacted WWAY News saying they believed Holland was forced to retire because of what they described as “backstage politics.”
Brandon Guthrie, CFCC’s senior vice president of academic affairs, denied that allegation.
“I do want to clarify that no one was forced to leave Cape Fear Community College,” Guthrie said. “I think whenever you have resignations with higher-level leadership positions, sometimes with that comes speculation and fear that a program may not be able to continue at the same level of excellence that it always has.”
Guthrie said the nursing department is moving in a new direction and that he has spoken with students and staff who had questions or concerns about the changes.
“One thing we convey to them is that their mission is to come here and get educated, worry about their exams, worry about their training, do those things,” Guthrie said. “Our focus is to make sure that the people are in place to teach them and to give them the education that they deserve.”
Now, that education they deserve fall to Karen Sharrah, who is now leading CFCC’s associate degree nursing program.
She hopes to build relationships with health care providers in the region to create additional opportunities for students and help address the area’s nursing shortage.
“It’s important to all of us to ensure that we do have the health care delivery relationships so that we can meet the needs of a growing community because we do live in a health care desert,” Sharrah said.
One of the resources she hopes to maximize to effectively educate students and attract people interested in the field is the program’s realistic mannequins, which can talk, bleed and even sweat.
“One thing that really impressed me with the program is the simulation lab, because it’s high fidelity,” Sharrah said. “Our mannequins are so advanced, they sweat. There are so many different scenarios that the faculty members can put the students through to better prepare them in a safe environment.”
CFCC also plans to expand its outreach to local K-12 schools, giving students opportunities to learn more about the nursing field and the college’s nursing program.
