By Emma June Grosskopf and Carol Weir
Special to The Island News
The University of South Carolina Beaufort’s nursing program reached a milestone this semester as 24 sophomores became the first cohort to start classes at the new Beaufort Memorial PATH Career Development Center. Their first day was Aug. 18.
“I’m really excited,” said Nursing student Audrie Sullivan, who is from Hilton Head Island. “I have dreamed about this since I was little.”
The $2.8 million, 6,340-square-foot facility, which opened in July, was built in partnership with Beaufort Memorial, the City of Beaufort, Beaufort County, USCB and the Beaufort Memorial Foundation. Located on the hospital’s main campus, the Center expands USCB’s capacity to educate nurses at a time when the demand for healthcare professionals continues to rise.
With the addition of the PATH Center, USCB aims to grow its nursing program from graduating 42 students annually to 72.
“Many students don’t have a hospital background,” said Suzanne Wurster, Chair of the USCB nursing program. “In this semester, we give them opportunities to interact with standardized patients. It could be a live human or one of the manikins that we have in the simulation labs here.”
Wurster, Ph.D., RN, also holds certifications as a nurse educator (CNE), in professional development (NPD-BC), in emergency nursing (CEN), and in critical care technology (CCIT).
The PATH Center features four simulation labs designed to replicate hospital rooms. Each includes lifelike manikins that allow students and clinical staff to practice scenarios ranging from pediatric respiratory emergencies to cardiac arrests and surgical complications. USCB also has a simulation center at its main Nursing campus in Bluffton. Simulation helps students build communication, assessment, and bedside manner skills.
On their first day at the PATH Center, the students toured the classrooms and labs where they will spend several days a week over the next three years before graduating with Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) degrees. Their coursework also includes hundreds of hours in hospitals, clinics, and community health centers.
Students in the new cohort come from Beaufort, Bluffton and surrounding communities. For some, beginning their nursing education at the PATH Center represents the realization of a lifelong goal.
“This is one way that we are helping increase our nursing pool,” said Joy Solomon, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, Beaufort Memorial’s Director of Education and Workforce Development. “Every hospital struggles with nursing shortages, and we have become strategic with how we fill those gaps. We want to be ahead of the curve as much as possible, and this partnership is one of the innovative ways that Beaufort Memorial is doing that.”
In addition to serving USCB students, the Center also supports Beaufort Memorial staff and other healthcare professionals through its PATH (People Achieving Their Highest) workforce development program, which offers professional development, certification testing and advanced clinical training.
Solomon described the partnership between Beaufort Memorial and USCB as “momentous” for the community.
“Partnerships like this are momentous,” she said. “They not only strengthen our workforce, but they help ensure the future of healthcare in our community.”
Emma June Grosskopf is Media Relations Manager for Beaufort Memorial Hospital.
Carol Weir is Senior Director of Communications for USCB.
