The Richardson City Council voted Monday to approve a permit for Galen College of Nursing to build a 41,000-square-foot nursing school campus. The City Plan Commission had discussed the project’s viability during a meeting earlier this month.
Galen’s new campus will be located at 1301 W. George Bush Hwy. and have an expected maximum enrollment of 1,000 students, per Community Impact. Due to the availability of online courses and the nature of the nursing programs, which often involve off-site clinical rotations, only about 300 students are expected to be on campus at any given time.
The campus was planned to help address the shortage of nurses, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Galen College currently offers a three-year Bachelor of Science in nursing that students can begin taking online. In addition, the new Richardson campus will offer a vocational nursing program and an associate bridge option starting with the 2023-2024 school year.
The campus will mark Galen’s fourth in the state, following those in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. The school’s website shows the college has 18 campuses in eight states in addition to its virtual campus.
Galen College of Nursing will be the third nursing college in Richardson, joining West Coast University and The Chicago School of Nursing. However, officials at Galen said there is still a need for more nurses and colleges to train them.
“This region of Texas is projected to be at a shortage of 14,000 nurses,” Kevin Denman, a representative for architectural firm BHDP, suggested to the city council, per Community Impact. “This is a really good solution to the problem of providing nurses, and [Galen is] doing this strategically across the country and across Texas.”
Healthcare, along with education, is the fastest-growing industry in Texas, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott explained, “Maintaining a highly skilled, well-trained healthcare workforce is critical to providing quality healthcare and increasing access for Texans across our state.”
