UMMC starts construction on new nursing school

A 106,000 square foot facility will be the newest addition to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. The new building will be the nursing school's latest update since 1999 after the Mississippi Legislature appropriated $55 million dollars to the project during this year's session. State lawmakers joined UMMC employees for a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday at the UMMC campus. 

The panel of speakers included Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann, who said the medical center was important to state lawmakers.

“It's our university… and we've been very supportive of them and they do great work,” he said. “They are at the highest level of trauma care, they went through COVID with us. I mean, you can look at everything they've done, but particularly they're educating our doctors, our nurses and our dentists here.”

Dr. Tina Martin is the Interim Dean of the School of Nursing at UMMC. She says lawmakers likely agreed to funding the new school because of the quality of students the program produces.

“I know there are a lot of competing priorities, but I feel like The UMMC School of Nursing has shown that we're able to produce graduates that are ready to transition to practice,” she said.

UMMC reports that the new building will allow a 25% increase in the number of nursing school graduates.