HCTC welcomes Meca Chiong Arocha to nursing faculty

Hazard Community and Technical College welcomes Meca Chiong Arocha to the nursing faculty. She brings with her emergency room, medical surgical, telemetry, obstetric, labor and delivery and critical care nursing experience. Arocha is fulfilling her lifelong dream of teaching, after working 14 years in a hospital. “I am so excited to share the clinical knowledge I have gained. I am always motivated to teach nursing skills to new nurses while working in the hospital; now I will be teaching aspiring student nurses. To see them grow in knowledge and confidence will make me feel happy and fulfilled as an instructor,” she noted.

She said the college is very important because this is where the dreams will become a reality. “People here are very fortunate to have this well-equipped campus with modern technology,” she observed. 

Arocha has worked for Hazard Appalachian Regional Healthcare as a telemetry nurse since February 2018. She worked in the Philippines for eight years in the Intensive Care Unit, Medical Surgical Unit, Labor and Delivery Room, Obstetrics Unit, and Emergency and Out-Patient Department.

Christy Martin, Nursing Program Coordinator, noted, “We are excited to have Meca join our nursing faculty. Our nursing students will be able to benefit from her many years of  experience. We are happy to know she is sharing her knowledge in the classroom and the clinical setting.”

Arocha holds two bachelor degrees -- from Brokenshire College and the University of Mindanao, both in Davao City, Philippines.

Meca and her husband, Michael Arocha, have a seven-year old son, Matteo Elijah, a third grader at West Perry Elementary School. The family lives in Hazard. “We enjoy the beautiful scenery of the mountains and the sunset,” she said.