New Nursing Program at Pitt-Greensburg Continues to Grow with Help of Partnerships

The Nursing program at Pitt-Greensburg got its swift start with the help of a significant partnership with the School of Nursing in Pittsburgh. Pitt-Greensburg’s Nursing program is accredited under the School of Nursing, making Pitt-Greensburg curriculum a “clone” of the Pittsburgh’s. The School of Nursing also continues to support Pitt-Greensburg’s program in a number of ways. In addition to providing excess equipment, faculty from the Pittsburgh School of Nursing participate in search committees in order to hire faculty for the Pitt-Greenburg program. One of the Assistant Deans from the School of Nursing also acted as the program director until Pitt-Greensburg hired its own director.

Pitt-Greensburg’s program also received a great deal of support from Excela Health. Most of the clinical are done at Excela hospitals. The clinicals were secured by Excela’s chief nursing officer. Nursing students at Pitt-Greensburg also work in Excela’s simulation labs. The CEO of Excela currently serves on Pitt-Greensburgh’s advisory board and the one of Excela’s former, senior, vice preidents serves is directing Pitt-Greensburg’s Healthcare Management major.

Pitt-Greensburg’s Nursing program is funded by tuition and federals grants, along with the mentioned  equipment and resources provided by Excela. The first year of the program was not as large of an investment as anticipated, because not much equipment was needed in the first year, but there will obviously be a greater need for staff, equipment, and lab space in the future.

The University hopes to hire another professor for the program by next year and will hire adjuncts as needed.

Pitt-Greensburg also hopes to not just grow its Nursing Program, but to expand its resources for all science majors, with the construction of the Natural Sciences building which will provide additional lab and classroom space for a variety of science courses, in addition to nursing, which would have an area on the second floor. Pitt-Greensburg’s goal is for the building to be a lead certification for the building possibly silver. The university is currently seeking funds for the building and evaluating the site, making sure that water and gas lines can be properly dealt with.

Students may have noticed workers drilling holes recently, this was actually because the university considered using geothermal heat for the building at one point, but it was concluded that such an investment would not balance out for another 67 years.