Linda Harris
Nursing Faculty

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“In long-term care,
students recognize the
wonderfulness that they
have to offer”

If you are in the local hospital or doctor’s office, the first thing you need to know is whether or not your nurse graduated from Cuesta. If so, your quality care is assured!  Many of the registered nurses working in San Luis Obispo County area hospitals and medical offices, and at Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria are graduates of the acclaimed Cuesta College nursing program. Its students are trained not only to have competent hands, but also to understand that their hands are shaped to sooth. For those placed in their care, it is the compassion and caring that makes a world of difference in healing. 

Linda Harris is a member of the nursing faculty at Cuesta College. Reflecting on her teaching experience this year, the one that is a defining moment is when the students work in the geriatric long-term care unit.  “That is the nursing students’ first experience and it’s one of the best.  It is there that they realize the wonderfulness that they have to offer. The elderly patients see something in us that we don’t see; they see the courage, the kindness and their connection to us.”

To be a nurse requires years of study and preparation, not to mention the core values of dedication and caring. The Cuesta College Nursing Department opened the doors to a rigorous program in 1967, and has graduated 1,230 qualified nurses since then, always at the top of the list on the state licensing exam. Students in the nursing program represent the full spectrum of the students who attend Cuesta College–some are 19, some are in their 30s, and some are grandparents. 

Appreciative of the care given by nurses, donors establish endowed funds at Cuesta to help nurses progress through the program with scholarships and state-of-the-art equiped skills laboratories.  Of the 155 endowed funds, fully 20 percent of them support nursing scholarships or the nursing program. The Ada Callahan Irving Allied Health Building was named for the late Ada Irving of Cambria who was the college’s first million-dollar donor.  Her first gift in the 1980s endowed the nurse caring curriculum. Ada worked closely with Dr. Mary Parker, Cuesta’s Director of Nursing and Allied Health, to fund scholarships, projects, and programs that support the nursing program.  Her testamentary trust will help fund the nursing program in perpetuity. 

Today there is an acute shortage of nurses, locally and nationwide. Dr. Parker and her nursing staff work closely with community health care providers to find solutions like these: Health Career Plus is a collaboration between Cuesta College’s Office of Employment Training and the major health care employers in San Luis Obispo County. Health Career Plus offers free training as a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA), and a career ladder opportunity as an Acute Care Nurse Assistant with guaranteed employment upon completion of training and State certification.  The sponsoring partners pay for the costs of tuition, books, uniforms, and supplies. The sponsored student agrees to work for the partner for one year after hire.  Partners include Arroyo Grande Hospital, Compass Health, Inc., French Hospital Medical Center, Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, and Twin Cities Community Hospital.