Nurses And Training Robots At GCSC

PANAMA CITY, FL - Glen McDonald, distinguished alumnus and President of Gulf Coast State College (GCSC), was formerly with Applied Research Associates, Inc. and was President of the Gulf Coast State Foundation.  Six years ago, he accepted the invitation to join GCSC, the “best career decision he ever made”. He has been President for two years. 

McDonald grew up in Tennessee, and was enrolled at Georgia Tech, when his parents decided to move to Panama City, Florida.  He made the “best educational decision of his life”, to enroll in GCSC, where he met his wife while bowling (to fulfill the college’s physical education requirement)!

GCSC, the fastest growing state college in Florida, is doing incredibly well, with year-to-date-growth about 9.6%. When you have 8,000 students, it is quite challenging to accommodate 800 new students per year, who need certified instructors and classroom space. 

McDonald attributes the growth to their “Gulf Coast Guarantee” which means that every high school graduate, whether from public school, home school, charter school or private school, gets a guaranteed $700 scholarship immediately credited to their account upon full-time enrollment (12 hours) at GCSC, which does not require applying for financial aid.  This helps to overcome the main barrier to an education.  Additionally, GCSC has open enrollment, so it is easy to enter.

The second barrier to getting an education is transportation.  GCSC established a partnership with Bayway that allows every student and employee at GCSC to use their student ID (or employee ID) to ride Bayway for free at any time.

Within six months after graduation, ninety-two (92) percent of GCSC graduates either go to work in their field or onto continuing education.   One reason for student success is the 25:1 professor to student ratio.  Professors know their students' names and help them transition from high school. Each student is assigned an adviser early to help check their success and happiness with their studies, to get a job that they like at the end. 

After earning an AA degree in two years, a GCSC student is guaranteed to be able to transfer their credits to 31 universities across the nation, including any university in Florida, such as University of Florida or Florida State.  About thirty (30) percent of the graduates with an AA degree transfer to FSUPC, into programs such as engineering.  

GCSC is the only Registered Nurse (RN) producer in Bay County, offering a rigorous Bachelor's Degree in Nursing program.  An RN degree makes you mobile, able to work anywhere in the world.  These well-prepared nurses pass the national NCLEX test with a pass rate of ninety-nine (99) percent, while the nationwide average pass rate is about seventy (70) percent.  To address the shortage of clinical spaces for nurses to do clinical training, GCSC is building a new nursing simulation center, where nurses can touch “patients” which are high-fidelity, humanoid robots with skin and tongues like humans.  Students can check blood pressure and even draw their blood!