The College of Nursing on Wednesday, Oct. 8. Credit: Daniel Bush | Campus Photo Editor
The Ohio State College of Nursing is aiming to double enrollment by 2027 in response to nationwide nursing shortages.
The increase, announced as part of current Ohio State President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr.’s university-wide initiative to grow enrollment in high-demand fields, will raise the number of traditional undergraduate nursing students from 176 to 320 over the next five years, per prior Lantern reporting.
“It’s really to help address the workforce development in nursing,” Wendy Bowles, assistant clinical professor and associate dean for baccalaureate programs at the College of Nursing, said. “The largest part of the healthcare workforce is nursing, and there’s a huge need for that.”
To support the growing student body, the college plans to hire more faculty and clinical instructors, while maintaining its eight-to-one student-to-clinical-instructor ratio, Kelly Sullivan, assistant clinical professor and director of the traditional baccalaureate of science program at the College of Nursing, said.
“We are working to increase our faculty size, to support our classrooms as well as clinical instructors,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan also said faculty recruitment is currently underway.
The expansion will require additional teaching space to accommodate the increased number of students, Sullivan said. In 2022, the college opened Heminger Hall on South campus, which added new classrooms and collaborative study areas, per prior Lantern reporting.
Now, the university plans to add simulation labs, including a virtual reality training room, on the garden level of Newton Hall, Bowles said.
“We have also, in the past three years, fully implemented our virtual reality experiences,” Bowles said. “It has been a really great aspect of teaching and within our teaching strategies [and] within our courses, and we have amazing faculty and wonderful clinical sites.”
The Ohio State University College of Nursing Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) ranked No. 1 among public institutions for 2025, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
The increased tuition revenue from additional students and partnerships with the Wexner Medical Center, which will offer both funding and new clinical placement opportunities, will support the expansion, Bowles said.
“We have worked on a practice collaboration with [the Wexner Medical Center] to create a pathway for students to go straight to the medical center to work there after they graduate,” Bowles said. “We do have an agreement that they prioritize Ohio State nursing students for placements.”
In addition, Bowles said the college has a close relationship with Nationwide Children’s Hospital and other community sites, which has opened the possibility for the college to expand opportunities into multiple clinical spaces.
Despite the rising enrollment, Sullivan said the college does not anticipate any compromise in accreditation standards or National Council Licensure Examination pass rates – also referred to as NCLEX pass rates.
“We don’t foresee any accreditation concerns,” Sullivan said. “I think we have a strong structure in place for NCLEX pass rates. I don’t anticipate that changing at all.”
This expansion of the college will also create more opportunities for students to be accepted, but will remain a competitive program, Sullivan said.
The expansion comes as the college completes a five-year curriculum revision aimed at modernizing its coursework to reflect evolving trends in healthcare, Bowles said. The updated curriculum incorporates new teaching methods, including digital tools and simulation-based learning.
“The curriculum is very innovative and up to date with the current landscape of nursing and healthcare, and so that took over a five-year process to reenvision what that would look like, and it’s fully implemented at this point,” Bowles said.
