New Central Georgia Technical College building provides hands-on opportunities for medical programs

WARNER ROBINS -- Students in Central Georgia Technical College's medical programs are starting to take classes in a new building constructed with hands-on experience in mind.

The Roy H. "Sonny" Watson Health Sciences building, a $17 million initiative built with state funds, will house the college's EMT, nursing, surgical technology, radiologic technology, hemodialysis and core science courses necessary for those programs.

"There's always a demand for those careers," said Janet Kelly, the school's assistant vice president for marketing and public relations.

The building is three stories and about 70,000 square feet. It contains classroom, lab and office space for each of the health disciplines the school offers, along with space for some yet to be added. Physical therapy and registered nurse programs are in the works for CGTC, but those disciplines already have spaces being prepared.

For the physical therapy students, that will include exercise equipment and a therapeutic pool, and the RN students will work in a lab with six of the building's 19 hospital beds.

"It will look just like a real hospital once the beds are in," Kelly said, noting that the beds are set to arrive later this month.

That real-life feel was key to the building's construction.

EMT students will be using an ambulance simulator that the instructor can move while watching the students work on a surveillance system through cameras inside the simulator. The lab also includes furniture set up to resemble a living and dining room.

All of that is to give students a chance to practice under similar circumstances that they'll face after graduation, down to placing an IV in a moving vehicle.

"This gives the students that experience," Kelly said. "You want them to be prepared to serve the patient."

In the surgical technology department, students will work inside a full operating room that Kelly said could be used for actual surgery if the need arose from a nearby hospital.

All the labs were designed under guidance from the school's faculty, including surgical technology department chairwoman Lorna Cox. She's been working at CGTC for 19 years after a 20-year career in the Army.

"I knew I had to make it as close to the real thing as possible," she said.

Cox said the new building was the third she had worked in during her CGTC career. In the first on Corder Road, her students had to work around an operating table and equipment pulled into a regular classroom.

The newer campus on Cohen Walker Drive, across the road from the Watson building, was an improvement, but Cox said the brand-new facility took the program to another level.

"When we move here, that's like going to the penthouse," she said.

The Watson building is one of four added to the Warner Robins campus since 2009, and that became CGTC's main campus when it merged with Middle Georgia Technical College in 2013.

Cox said the building was an example of CGTC's willingness to meet the needs of students for their future careers, a sentiment echoed by 28-year-old student Wayne Walker, who will be taking EMT classes there.

"Within your craft, you'll know what's going to happen," he said. "You should already be ahead of the curve."

The building was also a product of the school's growth. Before the Glynn Greenway Building opened in 2011, students had to take science lab courses at other colleges due to a lack of space. The Watson building will continue to address that need as CGTC's enrollment has reached more than 7,800 students at its various campuses.

"I've seen this school grow," Walker said. "It shows that they're willing the meet the students' demands."

To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331 or find him on Twitter @MTJTimm.

This story was originally published January 10, 2016 at 9:09 PM with the headline "New Central Georgia Technical College building provides hands-on opportunities for medical programs ."