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East Carolina University’s College of Nursing has received a significant investment of $3 million from the state of North Carolina to increase the number of entry-to-practice nurses who graduate from the college’s undergraduate program.

Of the nine UNC System schools that applied for, and received, funding increases to support their baccalaureate nursing programs, ECU received more than any other program, a signal of the state’s confidence in the College of Nursing’s capacity to graduate the most competent and practice-ready entry-to-practice nurses in the state.

“This is a huge investment in our program, and I think it will be a turning point in the history of Pirate nursing,” said Dr. Bim Akintade, dean of the College of Nursing.

In the current fiscal year, the college will receive $1,125,000 to expand the undergraduate program, with a further $1,875,000 projected to be transferred by May 2025.

In 2023, the college graduated 231 entry-to-practice nurses who achieved a 99.57% first-time pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), which nursing school graduates must take before becoming licensed to practice.

College leaders are working on details about the number of new students who will be admitted and the number of faculty needed to support that growth but acknowledge that more students will require more teachers.

“Our current faculty have proven they know how to prepare nursing students to become nurses,” Akintade said. “I have complete confidence that our team will use this funding to bring more world-class instructors into our classrooms and clinical spaces.”

“Our students learn an incredible amount in the classroom, but clinical rotations with a live patient and preceptors providing real-time feedback is where the student nurses learn how to be nurses,” said Dr. Shannon Powell, associate dean for academic affairs and an associate professor of nursing.

The college offers several education tracks for its graduates: a traditional undergraduate program, an accelerated BSN program for students who already have a bachelor’s degree, and a partnership with 17 eastern North Carolina community colleges to help registered nurses transition to their BSN degrees.

The need for nurses in North Carolina is great. Projections from the UNC Program on Health Workforce and Research show that by 2033, there will be a shortage of at least 12,500 registered nurses, overburdening an already overtaxed health care workforce, particularly in rural and underserved areas of the state.

In 2023, the College of Nursing signed an agreement with ECU Health to expand the number of nurses in North Carolina through an academic-practice partnership. More than two dozen student nurses recently graduated from a nurse extern program that placed them in clinical settings for eight weeks to gain skills and insights they will use once they graduate.

“Everyone understands that this is an all-hands-on-deck situation. We owe it to our families, friends and neighbors to make the most of this investment in the future of Pirate nursing,” Powell said.