Ranger Center holds celebratory ribbon cutting
Brian Hogan, Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto CEO/Administrator knows what the Northwest Mississippi Community College’s new Ranger Center can do for his hospital.
During Tuesday’s celebratory ribbon-cutting for the center, located at 1210 Church Road West in Southaven, Hogan addressed the nursing shortage now in Mississippi and DeSoto County.
Hogan said the Southaven hospital currently employs about 2,000 people and about 700 of them are nurses.
“We know that the state of Mississippi now faces a large shortage of nurses to take care of our aging population and the numbers that will be retiring over the next five years continue to make this a very important thing,” Hogan said.
Statistics indicate the state could be facing close to 2,000 nursing vacancies in 2025 with a turnover rate of more than 21 percent. Two years ago, 1,500 registered nurse positions were unfilled statewide with about 400 projected to be needed through the current year.
Hogan also quoted a study that said Baptist-DeSoto is the second-busiest hospital in the Memphis metro area, just below Baptist-East in Memphis.
One of the main components of the new Ranger Center building is that the college will be offering the first Associate Degree program for Registered Nurses in DeSoto County.
Hogan can’t wait for those nurses to be ready and available for employment because he’ll welcome whoever wants to work at his hospital.
“We consider our partnership with Northwest one of the most strategic partnerships that we have,” Hogan said. “We try to hire nurses from nursing programs all over the Mid-South, but the most nurses we hire come from Northwest.”
Hogan added between 20-30 nurses are hired from the Northwest program that until now was only offered on the Senatobia main campus. He hopes to hire more once the Ranger Center program is underway.
“From the hospital perspective, this is a huge win for our community and what we’re doing,” Hogan said.
The Ranger Center is more than just a nursing program as attendees to Tuesday’s ribbon cutting were made aware.
The 42,000-square foot building is a workforce and career-technical education center, now a separate addition to the DeSoto Center campus. The building will feature workforce training classrooms and labs, a professional testing center, and community meeting rooms.
The $13 million project was made possible through a $7 million federal grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, with additional support from the State of Mississippi, the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors, and Northwest’s institutional funds.
Groundbreaking for the building took place in May 2023 and classes actually started being held there earlier this year.
Northwest President Dr. Michael Heindl calls it a dream come true for the school.
“This is an exciting time for education in DeSoto County,” Heindl said.
Photos by Bob Bakken, DeSoto County News and Carly Fox, Northwest Mississippi Community College
