Fred Eberle Technical Center has been training area nurses for more than 40 years

Nurses are in high demand across the Mountain State, and Fred Eberle Technical Center has been helping prepare students for the profession for more than 40 years.

Kendel Guthrie is a nursing instructor for the Fred Eberle Technical Center LPN program. She said the post-secondary program is a year long, starts in January and has been around since 1979.

“Anyone who wants to be a nurse should look into this program,” Guthrie said. “We are really focused on patients coming first. We help students develop the skills they need to be a beginner nurse, so they can go out and offer care for their communities and make a difference in the lives of the people in their communities.”

The practical nursing program has two components: in-class learning and clinicals. The program builds on itself, and by the end of the year, students go into the workforce armed with everything they need to know to offer effective care to patients.

“Anything that a nurse is licensed to do in this state, we teach them to do,” Guthrie said. “We work to get our students into all of the areas to give them a taste of what an LPN is and the different places they can work.”

Guthrie speaks from experience — she is a graduate of the FETC LPN program herself.

Those interested in applying should go onto the school’s website, click on the LPN link and complete an application, which are accepted March through August.

“A lot of questions about the program are answered on the website,” Guthrie said. “Students apply, take a nursing school entrance exam and then there is an interview.”

Once a student completes the LPN program at FETC, they are considered a graduate nurse until they pass the NCLEX, or state boards, which are given in Morgantown and Charleston.

“Everyone who graduated from the program last year passed their NCLEX,” she said. “100 percent of our graduates from last year are employed. LPNs are in high demand — if they want to work, there is a job for them.”

Anyone interested in the Fred Eberle Technical Center LPN program should visit their website, complete an application or call (304) 472-1259 with questions.