The Stillwater Center, a home for mentally and physically challenged children and adults, is a valuable business partner that provides both employment and practical experience for Miami Valley Career Technology Center Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) students and graduates.
Students in the MVCTC LPN program do educational clinical rotations at Stillwater, providing nursing care to residents under the supervision of MVCTC instructors. According to Carol O'Neill, Nursing Director at the Stillwater Center, the clinical rotations benefit both the MVCTC students as well as Stillwater.

"The MVCTC students get clinical experience they wouldn't be able to get elsewhere," O'Neill said. "They learn how to work with MRDD patients, and they get good experience with special nursing procedures, such as helping patients who have tracheostomies and gastrostomies (g-tubes)."

O'Neill said that Stillwater benefits from the program because many of the students come to work at the facility after graduating from MVCTC.

"I have hired a number of MVCTC graduates," O'Neill said. "While the students are here, they learn about Stillwater and how our facility operates. Many of them fall in love with our residents and our program and want to return to work here."

O'Neill also has found that MVCTC graduates are well-prepared for the workplace. "MVCTC has a really good program. Graduates come to us with good clinical skills and good thinking skills," she said.