Augusta Technical College will move its School of Health Sciences to University Hospital’s Summerville campus, Augusta Tech president Dr. Jermaine Whirl and University Health Care System CEO James R. Davis announced at a press conference on the campus on Thursday, Jan. 13.
The goal is to graduate 200 nurses per year within five years of the program’s shift to the Summerville campus, Whirl said.
At the press conference, the two leaders signed a letter of intent that will begin the process of moving the health sciences program to the Summerville campus, located at 2260 Wrightsboro Rd., in the spring or summer of 2022, contingent on achieving authorization from the state.
“We’re a critical point in medical staffing in Augusta,” Davis said. “Nothing is more important to meeting the healthcare needs in our community than creating a new local pipeline for training the next generation of nurses and clinical professionals.”
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Davis promised “upfits” and renovations to the existing medical office building on the Summerville campus to start with. If the program progresses and is successful in producing nurses, University Health Care System will consider the construction of a new academic classroom building on the campus.
“We have space; Dr. Whirl needs space. We have clinicians; they need people to help train,” Davis said. “It’s a great marriage, and they have the technical college to make it happen.”
Whirl noted that an overwhelming portion of Augusta Tech graduates stay in the CSRA after graduation.
“Ninety-four percent of our graduates stay in the CSRA. That’s an incredible attribute that we can provide here to the residents,” Whirl said. “We know the only way to grow the pipeline is to increase the number of students coming into the School of Health Sciences.”
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Whirl said the school has been limited in space for decades since the academic buildings were built in 1991, and they have now completely outgrown their space.
“We had six academic schools back then. Today, we have 23. We have a waitlist of 600 students trying to get into one of our competitive healthcare programs,” he said. “This is a great opportunity for us to grow that pipeline and get students off the waitlist and into a healthcare profession.”
University will also provide access to scholarship funds to support nursing students, as well as supplemental funding or clinical faculty to support the ongoing allied health and nursing instruction at the college, according to the letter of intent.
Davis said that the area loses about 200 nurses a year through turnover, retirement or traveling, so the supply of 200 more nurses per year would be very beneficial.
Whirl said he hopes this partnership can be a national model for other colleges in the country to see how a partnership between a healthcare body can bring unique solutions to a troubled workforce.
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com
