UMass Boston receives $3 million in federal funds to expand nursing program

UMass Boston officials will be using $3 million in federal funding to create a “state-of-the-art” home care digital and simulation lab, a step they say is essential to preparing nursing students for the evolving world of health care.

The lab will expand the university’s Center for Clinical Education and Research, educating students on home care and telemedicine. There will be special emphasis on patients who are aging, disabled or have experienced health disparities, officials said during a Thursday news conference.

“Health care is really changing so we need to create simulation spaces, practical experiences that give students an opportunity,” Provost Joseph Berger said. “It’s going to allow us to create state-of-the-art technology that represents the expansion of health care, out of traditional hospital settings and into virtual spaces.”

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch secured the funding in this fiscal year’s $1.7 trillion omnibus appropriations bill that President Joe Biden signed into law in late December. The $3 million award for UMass Boston follows $1.35 million that Lynch obtained last year the university used in designing plans to expand its entire footprint.

Planning for the new home care lab will start fairly soon, but the overall project timeline needs to be ironed out, said Bo Fernall, dean of the Robert and Donna Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences. It is safe to assume the new lab will not be available next school year, he said.

“It’s very complicated to bring all of this technology into one space and make sure that it works and we’re up and running,” Fernhall said. “Then we need to train our instructors to be able to use it appropriately to educate our students.”

Lynch pointed to what he calls a “crisis in health care,” spurred by the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and related pressures put on frontline workers, hospital staff and nurses.

Roughly 19,000 nursing positions were unfilled across the state as of late 2022, according to an October survey from the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association. Earlier this month, the Massachusetts School Nurse Organization found that the 300 nearly job postings for school nurse positions accounted for more than 10% of all school nurses in the state.

“There seems to be an exodus of a lot of professionals who have said ‘OK, I’m at this point of my career, and I’m going to leave the profession,’” Lynch said. “We have such demand for nurses in this area.”

Students remain interested in pursuing nursing careers despite the pandemic-related hardships.

There are roughly 1,400 students enrolled in UMass Boston’s nursing program out of the school’s total enrollment of roughly 15,000 students.

“The interest is huge,” Fernhall said. “The question is can we accommodate that interest? What we need to do is create a situation where we can accept more students and help students successfully graduate and become highly-skilled nurses to help patients.”