UMMC School of Nursing adding traditional BSN to Ole Miss campus in 2024

Published on Monday, September 18, 2023

By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu

Photos By: Joe Ellis/UMMC Photography

The University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing is expanding its Oxford offerings to include a traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at the University of Mississippi next year.

The UMMC School of Nursing has been awarded a $750,000 grant from AccelerateMS through the state’s Office of Workforce Development to reinstate the traditional BSN pathway at the School of Nursing’s instructional site in Oxford.

This grant is in addition to $4 million appropriated by the Mississippi Legislature during the 2023 legislative session to the University of Mississippi for repair, renovation and expansion of the nursing school in Oxford. 

Currently, the University of Mississippi campus includes an accelerated BSN program that allows students with baccalaureate degrees in other subjects to earn a BSN and prepare for licensure tests in a year’s time. With this expansion, students will be able to earn a four-year degree in nursing in Oxford.

“In Mississippi and nationally, there is a need for more nurses,” said Dr. Scott Rodgers, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at UMMC. “Our mission is to educate the next generation of nurses, nursing leaders and nurse educators. The growth of UMMC’s nursing program in Oxford will increase the number of registered nurses caring for patients in Mississippi.”

Nursing at Ole Miss expanded to the South Oxford Center, the former Baptist Memorial Hospital building that was purchased by the University of Mississippi in 2017. What had been an intensive care unit has been converted into a high-fidelity simulation practice lab for nursing students, giving them experience in providing the highest level of nursing care.

“Our traditional BSN students in Oxford will have classes and labs at the South Oxford Center, a location that will give them the best experiential learning opportunities to transition to practice,” said Dr. Tina Martin, interim dean of the UMMC School of Nursing. “We’re grateful to the Mississippi Legislature, AccelerateMS, the Mississippi Office of Workforce Development and the University of Mississippi for enabling the School of Nursing to strengthen the Mississippi nursing workforce by graduating 28% more baccalaureate-prepared registered nurses.”

Dr. Joe Tacy, associate professor of nursing and associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Nursing, will serve as principal investigator for this project, primarily responsible for the oversight of the grant. The co-investigators are Dr. Sharon McElwain, associate professor of nursing and assistant dean for undergraduate programs in the School of Nursing; Dr. Leigh Holley, associate professor of nursing and assistant dean for the Oxford Instructional Site at the University of Mississippi; and Martin.

“We look forward to the start of this additional BSN track, which will allow more students to pursue nursing degrees,” Tacy said.

The first cohort of 50 traditional BSN students will begin May 2024 and is expected to grow to 70 in its second year. The current ABSN program includes a 70-student cohort.

At UMMC, 217 students are enrolled in the traditional BSN program, part of the 873 students studying in undergraduate and graduate programs of the School of Nursing.

The grant-funded expansion of the Oxford nursing program adds to recent notable events. The School of Nursing, which is celebrating its 75^th anniversary this year, broke ground in June on a new state-of-the-art home on the UMMC campus. In 2022, the BSN programs at UMMC and in Oxford received the highest ranking in the state from U.S. News & World Report.

About 660 BSN programs are ranked each year, so that puts the baccalaureate nursing programs at UMMC and in Oxford just outside the top 10 percent in the country.

The BSN programs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Oxford campus came in at 67th in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking.