Grand Strand Medical Center faces nurse shortage head on with new nursing campus

Ten thousand nurses.

That’s how many nurses South Carolina is projected to be short under 10,000 the next ten years, according to a 2018 report by registerednurses.org.

The critical nursing shortage in South Carolina was also a major point brought up at the Galen College of Nursing’s opening ceremony held Wednesday night at the Grand Strand Medical Center.

The time of the program depends on your level of education and which program you are enrolling in. For an associates degree in nursing, it’ll take you two years. But if you come in with college credits that Galen College of Nursing accepts, you could graduate in a shorter amount of time.

The Galen College of Nursing campus, located at Myrtle Beach’s Grand Strand Medical Center, completed physical renovations this year and is ready to begin transitioning its students to in person learning.

While the first virtual classes began in March 2022, students will now be able to join classes in person, and use patient simulation labs and have their clinical sessions within walking distance.

Galen College of Nursing was bought by HCA Healthcare’s South Atlantic Division in 2020, which also owns the Grand Strand Medical Center.

“To be able to produce several hundred nurses that will join this community every year will be a part of correcting what is right now a terrible situation that faces every one of our hospitals, and faces every one of our communities,” Hugh Tappen, the president of HCA’s South Atlantic Division, said.

Audria Denker, the vice president of Galen College of Nursing, said the college tries to work with organizations to find out the areas with the greatest needs for nursing.

“There was a lot of pent up demand here, a lot of people that wanted to become nurses that just did not have the opportunity, for whatever reason,” Denker said.

According to Tiffany Keys, Grand Strand Health’s chief nurse, the first group of students will graduate in September of next year.

“It’s a sustainable plan that will keep us going over top,” Keys said. “[Galen College of Nursing] is only going to grow. We’ve already have talking about plans for expansion and growth.”

The campus itself is located on the grounds of the Grand Strand Medical Center and consists of two floors of the medical office building.

On the first floor of the Grand Strand Medical Office building, located on 920 Doug White Drive, is the student enrollment center. If someone was interested in the program, the first floor is where they would go first. On the third floor holds the classrooms, patient lab, and a student resource center.

Ronetta Grate, a new student at the college, said she decided to join Galen after a personal phone call with the dean of Galen College of Nursing.

“I actually love the way Galen makes you feel welcome,” Grate said.

Galen College of Nursing has rolling admission every three months, meaning rather than accepting new students at one single time, its able to accept students throughout the year, and hold graduation ceremonies about every three months as well according to Denker.

Several faculty, students and Myrtle Beach representatives attended the opening ceremony on Wednesday night, including Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune.

“We want to keep our people here. And so that excites me, it’s great for our community, it’s great for economic development, and it’s great for our entire state,” Bethune said.