Clemson University Announces Collaboration with Local Health System to Build $31.5 Million Nursing School

Clemson University and the Greenville Health System (GHS) broke ground on Jan. 30 on a $31.5 million, 78,255-square-foot collaborative Clemson University Center for Nursing, Health Research, and Innovation building which will be housed at the Greenville Memorial Medical Campus. The new building is expected to open in 2018.

With the new larger four-story building, Clemson and GHS will be able to expand their bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree program from 352 to 800 students over the next six years, doubling the number of undergraduate nursing students they can educate and place into clinical settings. The goal of the new building and increased student population is to ease the state’s nursing shortage.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) suggests that the nursing shortage is growing steadily as baby boomers retire and not enough nurses graduate to replace them. Demand for BSN-educated nurses is also expected to rise with over one million nursing job openings predicted by 2022. Nursing shortages, especially at hospitals, are a critical problem that leads to higher risk of errors and poor quality of care when nursing units are short-staffed. Hospitals are also receiving increasingly complex patients, strengthening the demand for nurses who hold bachelor’s degrees.

GHS and Clemson expect their collective space to become a hub of academic collaboration with space for Clemson researchers and a hospital-like environment with virtual reality simulators and high-fidelity human patient simulators. Classrooms, offices, simulation labs, and collaborative spaces will all be housed in the new building where medical and nursing students can be trained to work together.