Clemson partners with Greenville hospital on new nursing school

Clemson University and Greenville Health System have joined forces to build a new nursing school in Greenville in an effort to ease the growing nursing shortage.

The $31.5 million four-story building will be on GHS’s Grove Road campus, next to the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.

Between retirements and fewer people entering nursing, combined with a growing need for health care, the nation is expected to be short more than 1 million nurses by 2020, officials said. And the shortage in South Carolina is expected to last until 2025.

Once running in fall 2018, the 78,255-square-foot school will more than double the number of baccalaureate trained nurses Clemson produces from 352 to 800 annually over the next six years.

Because of limited teaching and clinical space, Clemson has only been able to enroll about 8 percent of applicants, officials said. So the arrangement also calls for increasing the number of clinical openings at GHS.

Clemson President James P. Clements said the project will address the critical shortage of nurses.

“It will make a difference for faculty, staff and students and South Carolina because it will allow us to graduate more highly-qualified nurses,” he said. “It will be spectacular.”

GHS president Dr. Spence Taylor said it will help supply nurses for the hospital, the region and beyond.

“Not only will we be able to train and graduate more practice-ready BSN nurses,” he said, “but we’ll be able to recruit and retain more nurses because of the additional training options open to them.”

While GHS’s new governance model has helped it develop relationships with other entities, Taylor said it didn’t specifically apply to this partnership.

For half a century, GHS has been a clinical learning site for Clemson nursing students, with about 3,500 going through the program so far, officials said. The expanded nursing program is an extension of that relationship.

In addition to the demand for nurses is the push for those with Bachelor of Science degrees. The Institute of Medicine recommends that 80 percent of nurses have a bachelor’s degree by 2020, and Valentine said that means improved patient outcomes.

Nursing students will also train along side the medical, pharmacy and other allied health students at GHS.

This story was originally published January 31, 2017 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Clemson partners with Greenville hospital on new nursing school."