PHARR — Elected officials and education leaders celebrated the expansion of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Nursing facility here at a signing ceremony Thursday, an expansion they hailed as a major step for the region.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced a $2 million grant in May directing federal virus relief funding toward building the school.
The funding for the state-of-the-art facility will be matched with $24 million in local investment, according to U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s office. The project is expected to create 750 jobs and $30 million in private investment.
It’s unclear from where the $24 million local investment will come.
UTRGV enrolls around 300 nursing students annually in two types of programs, School of Nursing Dean Dr. MaryJane Lewitt said.
According to Lewitt, the new facility, which will be located at 2800 N. Cage Blvd. in Pharr, will contain four large classrooms, a skills lab and a full simulation center that will provide undergrads with “one of the best learning environments anywhere.”
Two classrooms, a skills lab, a simulation center and a full clinic setup with exam rooms will serve graduate level students.
The facility will provide a home for aspiring nurses the Valley currently doesn’t have the infrastructure to train, Lewitt said, noting that over 700 qualified applicants were not admitted into Valley nursing programs in 2019.
Officials underscored the importance those nurses will have on the health of the Valley’s residents.
“I’ll take a moment of personal privilege to tell you that in the last few months I’ve spent, with my family, more time than I would like to in a hospital. And I saw a lot of great doctors, but I’ll tell you, I saw a lot more great nurses,” State Rep. Terry Canales said. “They are the front line, they are the people that register when you walk in the door. I watched them wait on my father hand and foot in an ICU room, to my mother at MD Anderson. I can tell you, there’s no such thing as too many nurses.”
Addressing the nursing shortage that’s affected medical practices and hospitals locally and nationally is one of the main boons of the project.
“This has long been overdue,” Pharr Mayor Dr. Ambrosio Hernandez said. “We all know that we have a national shortage of nurses. And we all have a family member affected by it — all of us have had it. But now we’re going to solve the problem. It may appear to be just a drop, but it’s a big drop in the bucket, a very big drop.”
The facility will have the added advantage of providing students from Valley school districts a place to train and learn locally.
“That’s what you’re going to find, there’s a lot of good students here,” Hernandez said. “They always leave the area. They want to go into medicine and nursing, but they don’t because there’s not enough slots, not enough infrastructure, not enough help. But we’re gonna solve that problem for you.”
The various dignitaries consistently hailed the collaboration between politicians, education institutions and municipalities that they said made the facility possible.
UTRGV President Dr. Guy Bailey praised the strong local and state political leadership he said undergird the project and have fueled the growth of educational institutions locally.
“Forward thinking, supportive, always out ahead of what’s going on,” he said. “Hey, this is a great place to be.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include the address of where the expansion will be located.
