JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) broke ground on a 106,000-square-foot School of Nursing Wednesday morning.
Mississippi’s first academic nursing program started in 1948 to increase the number of nurses in the state. The Department of Nursing became the School of Nursing in 1958, two years after the program came to the UMMC campus. It was initially part of the School of Medicine on the Oxford campus.
The first nursing education building at UMMC opened in 1963, with an addition following in 1969. The most recent expansion was in 1999.
The expansion is anticipated to open in 2026. Once it does, UMMC’s new School of Nursing will allow for a 25 percent increase in students. Tina Martin, who begins as interim dean of the School of Nursing on July 1, is ecstatic about that potential.
“This will be a great day for our current educators and nursing students, but it will also be a celebration for the many nurses who graduated from UMMC,” Martin said in a UMMC press release. “The care provided by our graduates has touched untold millions of lives.”
According to the press release, Rayne Jensen is a senior in UMMC’s traditional BSN program. She is thrilled to see the project start.
“This new building will definitely enhance the learning experience for students,” Jensen said.
The groundbreaking happened at 11:00 a.m. beside the University Rehabilitation Center. Leaders from Mississippi state government, UMMC, and the School of Nursing spoke during the ceremony.
The new School of Nursing cost is covered by $55 million in coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds authorized by the federal American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) and appropriated by the Mississippi Legislature in 2022, along with $12 million in funding from the Medical Center.
The University Rehabilitation Center, one of the older buildings on campus, will also provide new offerings to UMMC. The one-story building will soon receive state-of-the-art clinical simulation and skills labs. The building will also be home to a virtual and augmented reality laboratory, a home environment laboratory, a standardized patient primary care suite, and space for study and debriefing.
Joining the laboratory space will be a three-story tower featuring classrooms, an auditorium, group study rooms, faculty offices, meeting rooms and an undergraduate student lounge. Research labs with a biorepository and cell cultivation and microscopy space will be on the third floor, along with an administrative office suite and conference room.
For associate professor of nursing and associate dean for academic affairs Joe Tacy, the expansion moves the School of Nursing forward.
“With the additional space, the School of Nursing will be moving into the future,” Tacy said in the UMMC press release. “Not only will we have updated educational areas, but we will have the space needed to increase nursing enrollment.”
Though Jensen will graduate well before 2026, she is still grateful for the instruction that UMMC has provided to her.
“I know that when my journey at UMMC comes to an end, I will be well-prepared and confident in my ability as a nurse because of the support I have received,” Jensen said.