YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – Onvida Health and Arizona Western College (AWC) held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for a new Health Career Center in Yuma.
We spoke to both of them about how the new building will benefit local healthcare and higher education.
Dr. Robert Trenschel, president and CEO of Onvida Health, and Dr. Daniel Corr, president of AWC, said the new health career center will help keep future health care professionals close to home.
Dr. Trenchell said, “They can get training here and they don’t have to leave for training. They can work here and they don’t have to leave to work elsewhere…The talent that we have here in Yuma. We will train, educate, and maintain our staff.” ,”.
Dr. Koh added, “This will provide a pipeline of trained health care workers that is much needed and extremely valuable to our community.”
A small town with big talent.
Dr. Coe said Yuma doesn’t lack high-achieving students, but a lack of resources may push students to larger cities.
“If they don’t get the training they want here in Yuma, they have to go to Phoenix, Tucson or Flagstaff to get that training. And we don’t want that, right? Growth Many people who live in Yuma want to stay in Yuma, and this building provides programs and opportunities to stay in their hometown.”
The new building will be located about a block away from Onvida Health and next to Yuma Rehabilitation Hospital and will be two stories and approximately 60,000 square feet.
We will be able to support a wide range of training in patient care, research, data and analytics, and more.
“It’s obviously going to be a very high-tech building,” Dr. Core said. “It’s going to have a sophisticated simulation lab to train students. At $56 million, a lot of thought has gone into it.” It’s going to be great when it’s finished.”
A current AWC student shares how the career center has benefited her and her classmates.
Jamie Frazier said, “I’m really grateful that hospitals are starting to do things like this and recognizing the opportunities that are available to students. Especially in hospitals, where the types of things that AWC doesn’t offer are very important. That’s because there are a lot of them,” he said.
Construction of the new building will take approximately 18 months.
