Henderson building to give medical students shorter commute

Cat Todaro, 38, lives and works in Henderson but has to make the 35- to 45-minute drive to the College of Southern Nevada Charleston campus for all the required classes for her nursing degree.

When Todaro started at CSN in 2015, the Henderson campus only had her nursing prerequisite classes available. Once she was accepted into the nursing program, she enrolled at both CSN’s Charleston and Cheyenne campuses to take classes.

Henderson-area students can expect significantly shorter commutes come 2020, when the new Health and Sciences building on the Henderson campus is expected to be complete.

The building, to be shared with Nevada State College, will include faculty offices, science labs, nursing labs, a simulation center, classrooms and a library, said Patricia Charlton, vice president of the CSN Henderson campus.

The building project is funded through a partnership among CSN, Nevada State College and the Legislature.

Currently, the Henderson campus doesn’t have any allied health program classes, and all students in the program must go to another campus. With the new building, both CSN and Nevada State College will offer allied health classes.

Douglas Geinzer, chief executive officer with Las Vegas HEALS, a nonprofit coalition of medical professionals dedicated to improving health care in Nevada, said the valley needs more health care workers — and more who specialize in sports medicine and physical therapy, both growing fields with the pending opening of the new Raiders stadium and practice facility. Geinzer praised the collaboration between CSN and Nevada State College to encourage the growth of the health care industry in the state.

Todaro, who runs a booth at Euphoria salon in Henderson, said the extra time on the road affects her study time.

If the funding for the project continues through the 2019 legislative session, Charlton said, the proposed 73,000-square-foot building should be completed at the end of 2020. It’ll be three stories, according to Richard Lake, assistant director of public and media relations for CSN.

During a joint budget subcommittee meeting on March 14, legislators heard from CSN President Federico Zaragoza about the need for funding the new Health and Sciences Building project. According to a CSN blog post, Zaragoza told the committee that CSN has raised $6 million in private donations for the building and the state is expected to allocate $70 million in funding. The total project cost is $76 million.

The blog post said officials expressed reservations over inflation, but none seemed to withdraw support for the project. Legislators did not take any action on the budget item at that meeting.

Contact Rachel Spacek at 702-387-2921 or rspacek@reviewjournal.com. Follow @RachelSpacek on Twitter.