Rhode Island College School of Nursing is one of the nursing programs in the state that will benefit from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant cited in the Oct. 7 lead editorial, “Training more nurses.” Grant funds will provide much-needed scholarships to encourage nurses to become faculty and promote curriculum innovation.

To make full use of the grant funds, though, Rhode Island College needs a building in which to house the School of Nursing.

The Department of Nursing was created in 1970 (becoming a School of Nursing in 2006) and housed temporarily in 8,000 square feet of the life-sciences building. Since then, enrollment has grown to over 500 nursing majors, with a bulging pipeline of 1,200 prospective students who have declared their intent to become nurses through the school’s bachelor’s program or to advance their careers through the master’s program. Nurses with a master’s degree are also qualified to teach in Community College of Rhode Island’s associate’s degree program, or in Rhode Island College’s or University of Rhode Island’s bachelor’s-degree program.

The school has been working hard to handle the enthusiastic influx of students. The school has increased the number of nursing faculty at the college with the collaborative establishment of the Veterans Administrration Nursing Academy. Through the Centralized Clinical Placement Registry, managed by an arm of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, clinical placements have also grown. However, the nationally accredited and award-winning program is attracting more students than the school can accommodate. There is no more teaching, laboratory, or office space left for the nursing faculty and students.

To admit more students, the School of Nursing at Rhode Island College badly needs a permanent home. A building for the School of Nursing on the RIC campus, near tutoring, computer labs, the library and other resources for students and faculty, will allow an excellent program to grow and to address the nursing shortage that exists in an increasingly complex health-care environment.

Since 86 percent of RIC’s enrollment consists of Rhode Islanders, expansion of the nursing program at RIC will let more Rhode Island residents pursue a nursing career. These productive nursing professionals can then serve the state as tax-paying citizens and care-providers. Projections show that nursing shortages, exacerbated by the aging of Baby Boomers, will continue through 2020. As our state invests its admittedly dwindling dollars, we hope that nursing education will be one of the magnets for those dollars. The state’s economy and its citizens’ health will benefit for many years to come.

JANE WILLIAMS

NANCY CARRIUOLO

Providence

The writers are, respectively, dean of the Rhode Island College School of Nursing and president of Rhode Island College.