Clemson University and Greenville Health System (GHS) have joined together to build a new nursing school in Greenville as part of an effort to ease the growing shortage of nurses.
Expected to open in fall 2018, the new four-story, 78,255-square-foot space will more than double enrollment in Clemson’s traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
The facility will offer a hospital-like environment with virtual reality IV simulators and high-fidelity human-patient simulators, classrooms and offices.
The $31.5 million facility will be on GHS’s Grove Road campus, next to the University Of South Carolina School Of Medicine Greenville.
Clemson Nursing students will take general education and nursing foundation courses at the university’s main campus during their freshman and sophomore years.
Then, during their junior and senior years, approximately half of the nursing students will take courses at GHS and complete their clinical rotations at one or more of Greenville Health System’s seven participating campuses. Clemson will pay programming fees to GHS as part of the agreement.
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration reports that there will be a shortfall of more than one million nurses in the U.S. by 2020 due to a combination of fewer people going into nursing and the retirement of current nurses. South Carolina is one of 16 states projected to have a nursing shortage through 2025.
“This collaborative initiative by Clemson and GHS will allow the health system to meet the growing need for highly educated and experienced nurses to ensure the highest quality health care for patients, while at the same time strengthening the university’s commitment to vitally important health sciences fields,” Clemson President James P. Clements said. “Clemson is excited about this next step in its partnership with GHS.”