School of Nursing

UTC's Honors and Recognition livestream link (Thursday at 5pm for Graduate ceremony and Friday at 6pm for Undergraduate ceremony)

Director's Message

November 4, 2024 will be a day that we will all remember as we formally “moved dirt” for the new Dorothy and Jim Kennedy Health Sciences Building which will be at the corner of Palmetto and East 3rd streets in close proximity to Erlanger, the Health Department and at the beginning of the medical corridor with Parkridge and Memorial along the way. As we have promised, the new facility will allow a significant increase in enrollment, something we have been trying to accomplish for more than a decade. We were honored to have faculty, staff, students, alums, building donors, the UTC Executive Leadership Team led by Chancellor Angle, Provost Hale, Dean Valerie Rutledge, UT System President Randy Boyd, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, Tennessee Sen. Bo Watson, and Representatives Patsy Hazlewood and Yusuf Hakeem celebrating with us. For more about this event go to the UTC News Article and Video and see photos by Angela Foster!

Increasing the space from our current 30,000 square feet in Metro to 90,000 square feet, we will have eight classrooms accommodating more than 400 students daily. There will be five task training spaces, eight standardized patient actor exam rooms, a specialized space for labor and delivery experiences, and a simulated OR, ICU and emergency room. In addition, there will be 4 simulated patient rooms, a simulated nurse’s station and a medication room and plenty of debriefing spaces. More importantly, we will provide office space for 96 faculty and staff members so those who are clinical faculty and working from home can return to campus. We will have conference rooms, a wellness room, student and faculty lounges, and an area for food services.

We have been told that we will start construction in February 2025 with a completion date of Fall 2026. We plan to occupy the building in January 2027.

Please feel free to share any information about our progress to other alumni and friends. We want everyone to be aware of the exciting things that are happening!

Christine Benz Smith, PhD, APRN, FNP-BC
UC Foundation Professor
Director, School of Nursing
Chief Health Affairs Officer
 

The baccalaureate degree in nursing, master's degree in nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice and post-graduate APRN certificate at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (http://www.ccneaccreditation.org).

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.