Belmont University nursing students have held class in nearly every nook and cranny on campus. They even met in Sunday-school rooms at Belmont Heights Baptist Church.
But as of today the School of Health Sciences and Nursing now calls the Gordon Inman Center home. The facilities were funded partly by HCA’s TriStar Health System that donated one-third of the building’s 22-and-a-half million dollar price-tag.
The partnership was created to address a growing nursing shortage. One study forecasts a need for nearly 10-thousand nurses by 2020 in Tennessee alone.
TriStar President Larry Kloess says HCA hospitals don’t have a critical need yet, but the time is coming.
“The reality is, we have nurses who are getting older and retiring, nurses who are leaving the area and some who are pursuing other lines of profession.”
Kloess adds that the aging of baby boomers has put added stress on the healthcare system and specifically hospital nursing staffs.
Belmont’s new program will double its capacity to 600 students. While graduates will not be tied to HCA, they will get the opportunity to intern in their hospitals.
Nashville State Community College, Trevecca Nazarene University and Volunteer State Community College are also teaming-up with Belmont to form a nursing consortium.
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