$35 Million Going to a New Nursing Building

Spring Hill was awarded a $35 million grant that will be going towards a new state-of-the-art nursing building.

The money comes from Senator Richard Shelby and the Omnibus spending bill package that is also providing $200 million for the Alabama State Port Authority and much more. This comes at a time when our country as a whole is experiencing a nationwide nurse shortage. On December 30, 2022, it was announced that Spring Hill College would be getting this grant. On the same day, ABC news released an article about Alabama’s struggle with retaining nurses. According to the article “UAB Hospital stands with 238 nursing vacancies, Ascensions St Vincent has 204 vacancies and Grandview Medical Center has 479 openings. These vacancy numbers are high and proving to be a huge problem.”

As the demand for nurses increases the hope is that this new facility will encourage new students to join the nursing program and become more qualified once they have graduated. Katie McCord MSNCNL-RN, a Nursing professor at Spring Hill College, said “I’m excited for the new building. It is going to open many doors, not only for the nursing department, but for students as well. With the nationwide shortage we hope the extra space will allow us to take on more students and make a positive impact on health care.”

Mikayla Boyer, a nursing student said, “It’s been awesome, the sim labs are very realistic and there is a VR headset that allows you to see inside the human body.”

The current SHC nursing program has three ideas that it tries to follow: Innovation, excellence, and compassion. This new building will allow them to do just that with innovative technology and give the students the ability to learn and prepare for the future.

It is unknown where the new building will be placed or when construction will begin at this time. Currently the college offers six nursing programs. Five of which are online and a bachelors of science in nursing on campus. For more information, visit www. shc.edu