LEWISTON — Nursing students sitting in a room at Down East Community Hospital in Machias will soon be able to see, hear and participate in classes held in Lewiston.

Central Maine Medical Center’s College of Nursing and Health Professions is expanding its distance learning program to Washington County. 

Machias will be the fourth distance learning site for CMMC. The hospital also offers remote classes to nursing students in Rumford, Farmington and Bridgton. The expansion will be funded largely through a $608,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Axiom Technologies, a Machias-based Internet service provider, wrote the grant and partnered with CMMC. With the closest nursing school 90 miles away from Machias, Axiom officials hope CMMC’s distance learning program can help the poor, rural region train and retain nurses. 

“When we learned this program existed, we went after it,” said Susan Corbett, CEO of Axiom.

Founded in 1891, CMMC’s College of Nursing began offering distance learning courses to student nurses in Rumford in 2002, after it became clear that Rumford students were having trouble traveling the 42 miles to and from class. Distance learning  — largely using TVs, cameras and high-speed connections — allowed those students to stay in town but still participate in class. Soon the hospital added a site in Farmington, then a site in Bridgton.

The 234-student College of Nursing and Health Professions estimates it has graduated an extra 120 nurses since it started distance learning eight years ago. Hospital officials believe many of those new nurses stayed in their hometown area. 

Axiom hopes the program will do the same for Machias.

“For Washington County, it’s a tremendous opportunity,” Corbett said.

Although hospitals — including CMMC — have recently announced layoffs, experts say the demand for nurses will increase in the coming years. According to a study by the Maine Department of Labor, the state will need at least an additional 3,000 registered nurses by 2016. The president of CMMC’s College of Nursing said every one of her most recent graduates who wanted a job found a job, whether in a hospital, nursing home or other facility.

Axiom received $1.4 million from the Department of Commerce. About $800,000 of that will go toward the development of a real-time, Web-based program to help farmers and fishermen with government reporting requirements. The rest, just over $600,000, will go to the distance learning project, including $333,000 to pay for state-of-the-art equipment.

The new distance learning site is expected to be up and running in January. The college will offer its first Machias-based classes to LPNs and paramedics who want to become registered nurses. Regular classes will start next fall.

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