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Not long ago, I had the opportunity to sit down with Melissa Taylor – the chief nursing officer at South Carolina’s award-winning Lexington Medical Center. Taylor is on the front line of the Palmetto State’s nursing crisis – an issue our media outlet has covered extensively in recent months.
In our conversation, Taylor discussed the underlying factors contributing to the nursing crisis – which is being driven by South Carolina’s soaring population.
Taylor said the root cause of the shortage is “the aging population and the growth in population… especially here in the state of South Carolina and even more so in the Midlands, because we have a fast growing community here.”
According to a January 2023 report (.pdf) from the S.C. Office for Healthcare Workforce (SCOHW), the Palmetto State is projected to have the “tenth largest nursing shortage in the United States by 2035.”
That shortage could be even more pronounced in the Midlands… which is why a new partnership between the hospital and South Carolina’s flagship institution of higher learning is so critical.
(Click to view)
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Earlier this month, Lexington Medical Center joined the University of South Carolina nursing school in opening a new, state-of-the-art 52,000-square-foot facility to “train the next generation of nurses” – and to help them better prepare “to transition into practice.” Located on the hospital’s West Columbia, S.C. campus, the new satellite clinical education facility will be used primarily for “clinical training of the university’s third- and fourth-year nursing bachelor’s students as well as master’s program students,” according to a release from the hospital.
“Within five years after opening, the new facility will help train and graduate 400 nurses per year in the Midlands — an 80 percent increase annually,” the release added.
According to Taylor, the new partnership is “transformational” – echoing the assessment of South Carolina nursing school dean Jeannette Andrews, who hailed it as “our commitment toward a future that will attract the most promising and talented student and faculty minds.”
“Our new satellite campus and its cutting-edge technology will elevate what our students can experience,” Andrews said.
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“We’re helping the University of South Carolina in two areas, one is to provide the building – which takes care of them having enough space,” Taylor noted. “We are also going to provide the staff who will perform the clinicals, so they will be the clinical instructors for all the junior and senior students.”
Students will also benefit from “an immersive simulation center, state-of-the-art clinical education, collaboration spaces and private study spaces,” according to the hospital.
Just last month, Lexington Medical was honored as the best hospital in the Midlands region of the Palmetto State for the third year in a row.
“We are proud of our outstanding physicians, nurses, clinicians and staff who continue to provide exceptional care to meet the needs of our communities,” hospital president and CEO Tod Augsburger noted.
Count on this media outlet to keep our audience up to speed on the latest developments related to the nursing shortage – and innovative partnerships like this one aimed at addressing it.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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