UT Health Sciences Advisory Board to Meet Friday, May 8

UT Health Board Meeting Friday will decide nursing school expansion funding

Sarah Mills | GlobalBeat

The UT Health Sciences Advisory Board convenes Friday, May 8 to vote on allocating $45 million requested for expanding the nursing school and developing two new medical residency programs.

The proposal would add 1,200 nursing seats and 300 residency positions by 2027 across the system’s Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga campuses, the largest expansion since the university was chartered in 1911.

Key leaders see the expansion as crucial after Tennessee reported a 17 percent decline in registered nurses between 2022 and 2024, leaving hospitals short-staffed during the flu outbreaks of last winter.

“The math is simple. We need about 4,000 more nurses in the state next year alone,” said Dr. Kim Morrison, chair of the advisory board. “Our enrollment caps are killing us.”

The request includes $28 million for faculty hiring, $12 million for simulation labs, and $5 million to secure additional clinical slots at partner hospitals that include Methodist Le Bonheur, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga.

“We cannot keep rejecting qualified students because we lack lab space,” Morrison told reporters during a briefing held before Thursday’s spring faculty meeting, noting that the College of Nursing turned away 900 qualified applicants this past admission cycle.

Finance committee documents released Tuesday show the board expects federal grants to cover 30 percent of the expansion cost once undergraduate seats increase, a projection that turned more plausible after President Trump’s executive order directing funds to nursing education programs in March.

Campus leaders have lobbied Cincinnati-based UnitedHealth Group for corporate sponsorship, though no firm commitment materialized. UnitedHealth spokesperson Erin Woods declined to comment on discussions when contacted.

Student reception appears enthusiastic among the current cohort. Nursing junior Caleb Roque, 31, spent six years working as a paramedic before applying to regain lost ground.

“If they open more seats, Tennesseans live longer. It is that straightforward,” Roque said, reloading an IV simulator during practice rounds in the existing hospital laboratory.

Critics question whether the investment will deliver returns quickly enough to alleviate shortages. The state comptroller’s office reported last March that startup costs for each additional nursing enrollee average $14,000 in the first year.

The proposal has drawn opposition from rural lawmakers who fear another wave of graduates will migrate to metropolitan centers, repeating patterns cataloged by the Tennessee Hospital Association in its workforce atlas.

Board member Rep. Diane Wade, who represents four rural counties, plans to vote against the request.

“We pour money into Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. Community hospitals around me still recruit abroad because no one stays,” Wade emailed after refusing interview calls through her legislative aide.

If the board rejects the funding plan, interim president Dr. Damon Wilkison said the university would scale back enrollment targets for the fall 2026 semester, pushing first-year class size to 640 instead of the proposed 1,000.

Wilkison declined to speculate on Friday’s outcome but conceded budget presentations laid out in January were carefully crafted to emphasize economic benefits for each region.

The proposal also faces pressure from faculty ranks. The UT Faculty Senate passed a resolution urging the board to condition release of money on assurances that adjunct hiring will receive permanent, not grant-based, salary commitments.

Three nursing professors resigned last September, citing salaries trailing national benchmarks by 14 percent and mounting workloads caused by enrollment hikes that outpaced staffing gains since 2020.

System officials counter they cannot revise pay scales until the state legislature completes budget hearings this summer, a process complicated by competing demands for K-12 teacher raises.

Despite internal frictions, the $45 million plan wins broad support from regional hospital executives who argue the margin for waiting has evaporated.

Dr. Reginald Coicou, chief medical officer at the 656-bed Regional One Health in Memphis, said the facility lost 200 nurses over three months during a pivotal flu surge in early 2026 and was forced to suspend pediatric trauma air transfer service for six days.

Nashville’s Saint Thomas Health terminated chemotherapy infusion on Saturdays between January and April after half of its outpatient oncology nurses exited for travel contracts paying $3,000 weekly wages.

A backlash is brewing off campus, too. Union organizers at Methodist lament the proposal does not require new graduates to accept local job offers, raising suspicions that Tennessee taxpayers will subsidize training bound for Texas or Florida markets. Security officers escorted out a protester who interrupted last week’s board committee session when she demanded “retain clauses” to accompany funding.

University counsel replied that binding agreements would violate the federal Nursing Workforce Diversity grant conditions, leaving the board with persuasive but non-binding outreach programs.

Background

Tennessee’s nurse-to-population ratio ranks 41st nationally, far below the federal recommendation of 1 nurse per 1,000 residents. The shortage worsened after Covid-19 pushed more than 6,000 registered nurses to leave clinical practice, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor.

State funding for nursing education declined 4 percent in real terms from 2019 to 2024, even as enrollment climbed 9 percent. The mismatch forced many campuses to cap admissions, leaving about 2,400 qualified applicants denied seats annually across the Tennessee Board of Regents institutions.

What’s Next

If approved, construction on new teaching labs in Memphis will break ground this September, with Knox and Chattanooga renovations following spring 2027. Faculty job postings will appear nationwide in June, aiming to complete hiring by December to meet spring 2027 instruction start dates. Funding constraints mean any board rejection would likely freeze expansion through 2028.

The May 8 vote also sets a benchmark for next year’s legislative session, where projected state revenue surpluses could total $3.7 billion, raising pressure to invest heavily in health science programs. Democratic lawmakers push for tuition freezes to accompany hiring expansion, noting a 13 percent cost-of-living gap persists across the three campuses, an issue graduate students vow to highlight at Friday’s public comment period.