Rhode Island is about to get a new source of nurses and other health care professionals.
Plans for Providence College’s new School of Nursing and Health Sciences are well underway, with the first class of students kicking off the program in the fall and groundbreaking for the state-of-the-art facility that will house it set for this summer.
This project will be the college’s largest construction project, according to PC officials. And amid an ongoing workforce shortage in the health care sector, they are hoping it will be a pipeline of much-needed trained workers in the state.
“The need for health care workers is pretty much in all positions,” said Kyle McInnis, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. “We have talked at length with many CEOs and presidents of hospitals throughout Rhode Island and elsewhere, and they’re excited not only to get new nursing students and nursing professionals but also other areas of health care, both on the clinical side and on the administrative side, that the new school will be producing.”
The program, announced last September, received a “tremendous response,” McInnis said, with the school receiving over 1,000 applications. The inaugural class will include 100 students – 50 for each program. Students enrolled in the existing health policy management program will fall under the School of Nursing and Health Sciences umbrella and will be relocated to the new facility.
The 147,000-square-foot School of Nursing and Health Sciences building will span five floors, providing about 60,000 square feet of classroom, laboratory, immersive learning, and work and collaboration space over four floors. The fifth floor will be left temporarily empty, allowing for growth in the future.
“This building is something very different than other construction projects that we have undertaken here at Providence College,” said Mark Raposa, assistant vice president for capital projects and facility planning. “The whole purpose for this building … is not only for the nursing and health sciences, but it’s also meant to be a state-of-the-art facility that’s going to provide the necessary learning environment for the next generation of health care providers.”
The building, which will become PC’s largest building, will be located at the eastern end of the campus on the site of the current Fennell Residence Hall, which will be demolished. The demolition will result in the loss of 186 beds, but Providence College said this will be made up with the opening of Shanley Hall, which will provide 369 beds, and the conversion of Sullivan Hall, currently an administrative building, into a 40-bed residential building.
Raposa says the demolition of Fennell Hall will be after the spring semester. PC officials are hoping to break ground on the new building by Aug. 1. With a completion date set for December 2024, the school’s new building will officially open in January 2025.
The building will include anatomy labs, tutorial spaces, an assessment skills lab and more. It will also feature the latest technology, McInnis says, such as virtual cadavers and augmented virtual reality.
“This building will allow them to be trained as if they were in a hospital or outpatient, inpatient, home health care environments,” Raposa said.
John Sweeney, PC’s chief financial officer, says the project is expected to cost about $80 million. At least 20% of the funding will come from philanthropic efforts, plus additional funding from bond proceeds and internal revenue sources, he says. The R.I. Health and Educational Building Corp. recently issued a $112 million bond for Providence College to help finance the construction of Shanley Hall and the School of Nursing and Health Sciences building.
McInnis says a nationwide search for faculty members has been promising so far. The school has hired seven faculty members and plans to add 15-20 more over the next three to five years.
“There’s a lot of faculty who want to be part of something that’s starting from the ground up, and that’s been able to entice some really talented people,” McInnis said.
The new program is only the beginning of a larger vision.
Soon, PC is also hoping to launch a graduate nursing and health sciences program, which will attract an additional 200 students. Eventually, they are estimating that the building will house 1,000 students.
“We feel very confident that the program is going to take off and it’s going to grow,” Raposa said.
The launch of the program and the construction of the school come at a critical time for health care in the state and nationwide. Workforce shortages preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, but disruptions to the health care system have exacerbated the issue. Officials have previously estimated that Rhode Island has lost 20% of its health care workforce between 2020 and 2022.
Many left due to retirement or burnout, and recruitment has been unable to keep up with these numbers. Experts say that in the long term, strengthening the pipeline and investing in educational programs are crucial solutions to address these needs.
And Providence College is hoping to do its part with this new program, and it is developing incentives to encourage students to stay in Rhode Island after graduation.
“Our hope is that students build relationships and have experiences throughout the health care system in the state that many will be offered jobs, and many will be retained here in Rhode Island,” McInnis said.