NOW A REALITY

PC president’s dream fulfilled as new nursing school building opens

Wheeler Cowperthwaite

Providence Journal USA TODAY NETWORK

PROVIDENCE – The idea for a nursing school at Providence College had been growing in Father Kenneth Sicard’s mind for a very long time, but as the number two person in the organization for 15 years, it wasn’t his call.

When Sicard took over as president of Providence College in 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, the idea that had been in the back of his mind was suddenly a viable option.

It became quickly apparent how strained the health care system was by the pandemic, and the importance of medical professionals, including nurses. Add in that healing is part of “who we are as a Catholic college” and starting a nursing school became Sicard’s goal as the president.

Five years after he was appointed as president, a new $100-million, 5-story nursing building has opened to a brand new cohort of students in Rhode Island’s newest nursing program.

From just an idea to a brand new program

Among the first things Sicard needed to do to make his dream of a nursing school a reality was hire someone to stand it up. The person he found was Dr. Kyle McInnis, who became the founding dean of the school.

Together, the pair built a nursing program that opened in 2022, followed by the building that opened earlier this month.

The program started in the top floor of another building, with many of the mannequins and equipment that have been migrated over. The new building is especially important for the first class of students, who entered the program without a permanent space ready for them.

“You should have seen them when they saw this building,” Sicard said.

The new nursing and health science students have the same basic curriculum, including the humanities, as all the other students. These classes build critical thinking skills which make graduates indispensable to the community, Sicard said.

Early popularity of Providence College’s nursing program

Once the program started accepting applications, there was a flood of interest. Before students had even moved into the new building, the last batch of applications was 1,000 for just 75 nursing slots.

“We hear students say, ‘I would have come to PC if you had a nursing program,’” Sicard said. “We’ve heard from a lot of alums who went to nursing school after they left here, no matter what their major was. So, it was a need that we needed to fill.”

It’s not just students who have been ecstatic about the nursing program, it’s also the local hospitals and medical

professionals. During a virtual meeting with leaders at South County Hospital, Sicard explained the reason for the meeting.

“And the CEO said, ‘Father, you had me at hello,’” McInnis said. “You know, they’re just short staffed and the need is just so acute that the ability to put some qualified professionals in the field is just welcome by everybody.”

Providence College tries to get its students as much community interaction as possible, which in studies has been shown to increase the likelihood that graduates stay in the communities after graduation, Sicard said.

How much the building cost

Sicard said the estimate for the building’s cost, including the 70 miles of cabling for audio and video equipment and all the high-tech medical training equipment, including mannequins, hospital beds and multiple $100,000 virtual dissection tables, is about $100 million.

The building is named for the late Ben Mondor, the former owner of the Pawtucket Red Sox, after his widow, Madeline, donated $10 million early in the development process.

“That was the first big gift we got for this project and it really gave us a lot of momentum,” Sicard said.

In all, the building is projected to eventually pay for itself through tuition, while the college is still trying to find benefactors to sponsor various parts of the building with naming rights. An anonymous donor gave $1 million for the chapel.

Providence College has also received an estimated $1.6 million in federal earmarks for the building and program.

Bustling building not just for nursing students

At the corner of the Providence College campus, the building isn’t just for nursing students. With a cafeteria, kitchen and study spaces, it is being used by other students looking for spaces to study, hang out or eat, especially those who live in the surrounding neighborhood off of Eaton Street.

Space to grow

Right now, there are just two cohorts of students using the building – freshman and sophomores. In two more years, the program will be running at its full contingent of students, about 600 in total.

The fifth story of the building is empty, but Sicard said he has some ideas for what could become of the space. While the program could matriculate more nursing students, there are no plans to increase capacity.

That fifth floor could become space for a lab, a graduate program, or both. When envisioning the building, the idea was to bake a little bit of future planning into the design. Providence College is mostly landlocked, much of it on the site of the former Chapin Hospital. The nursing building replaced a residence hall, while a new six-story dorm, Shanley Hall, opened in 2023.

The nursing building is on the site of the former infectious disease building.

Demolishing the old dorm and building the new one meant the net addition of enough beds to accommodate the influx of students to the nursing program.

There are currently no plans to increase the size of the program, and if it were increased, the college would need to build an additional dorm to handle the new students, Sicard said. The college has about 4,500 students.

“We don’t want to get much bigger than that because there’s a real home feeling to Providence College,” he said. “That’s why our students are so happy here.”

Say hello to ‘Hal’

As students sat in classrooms with mannequins in hospital beds to either side, Simulation and Lab Director Kylie Kuck led a tour of the mannequins, and the replica hospital floor and rooms the students will use to learn about the human body. One can give birth to a baby mannequin. Others have eyes that follow you around the room, snapping to whoever is speaking.

The building also has a mock studio apartment, with a not-handicappedsized bathroom, to help students figure out how to provide health care in a home setting.

Across screens in the building, the names of the mannequins appear on virtual name tags. The students got to name the mannequins themselves in a contest.

While most mannequins are controlled by faculty, the highest tech mannequin, named Hal, is powered by artificial intelligence, likely to the chagrin of any students named Dave.

“We’re simulating and practicing these conditions so that the students aren’t seeing it for the first time when they go on their clinicals,” McInnis said.

Reach Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal . com.