A decade ago, students who roamed Â鶹¹ÙÍø Hall on the Providence Campus heard discussions of assets, liabilities and capital as accounting professors conducted their classes.
Today, visitors to Â鶹¹ÙÍø Hall hear something very different.
“Decrease distractions, be focused, practice your six rights,” reminds Marie Woolery, an advanced practice registered nurse and Â鶹¹ÙÍø assistant professor. Where accounting students once took notes on principle, students are practicing the principles of nursing — implementing the six rights of medication administration (the right patient, medication, dose, time, route and documentation), preparing and injecting needles into injection pads, and applying antibiotic eye ointment on Eugene, a patient simulator manikin. It’s all part of Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s accelerated nursing bachelor’s degree program, one of several new programs within the College of Health & Wellness.
Why Expand Health and Wellness
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.9 million health-related job openings are projected each year, on average, due to employment growth and the need to replace workers who leave the field permanently. The American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges both project a physician shortage in the United States that could reach over 100,000 in the next decade. Employers are trying to entice applicants with thousands of dollars in signing bonuses and even housing stipends. With a dearth of personnel, healthcare must increase collaboration to achieve better functional outcomes with less resources. Enter Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s College of Health & Wellness and its holistic programming that recognizes nutrition and movement as medicine.
Besides the accelerated nursing program, Â鶹¹ÙÍø offers undergraduate health and wellness programs in Dietetics and Applied Nutrition, Exercise and Sports Science, Health Science, Healthcare Administration, and Public Health. These majors can flow into Â鶹¹ÙÍø graduate programs that include master’s degrees in Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics, Public Health, and Physician Assistant (PA) Studies as well as the Occupational Therapy (OT) Doctorate. A new Doctor of Physical Therapy (PT) degree program premieres in June 2025.
The Â鶹¹ÙÍø Advantage
“A lot of schools have PT, OT and PA, but very few have [those three plus] nursing,” says Paul Ullucci Jr., DPT, Ph.D., director of the physical therapy doctorate program. Adding Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s undergraduate and graduate degrees in public health, dietetics and nutrition to the mix — as well as the undergraduate program in exercise and sports science — puts Â鶹¹ÙÍø & Wales in a class of its own. “That’s where we really start to develop a practitioner that has a lot of ability and can communicate across multiple disciplines,” Ulluci adds.
Hospitality and Culinary Enhancing Health
Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s world-renowned hospitality and culinary programs also play a role in creating the most well-rounded practitioners. Responding to healthcare employers who cite workers’ poor communication skills as their most frequent complaint, Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s College of Hospitality Management has developed an online module that helps our health and wellness students identify verbal and nonverbal cues and improve their overall bedside manner. These skills are crucial in developing a rapport and doctor-patient relationship; proper trust and a therapeutic alliance help patients attain the highest outcomes and increase their treatment effectiveness by 30 percent.
CHW students are also collaborating with the College of Food Innovation & Technology in ways that are mutually beneficial. These students visit the CFIT kitchens and learn how to create and cook Mediterranean-style, heart healthy, and weight loss diets. PT students take these efforts one step further — they analyze CFIT chefs and students’ biomechanics and working environments to perform risk assessment and injury prevention.
“The Teaching Kitchen model brings together a variety of disciplines to show people how they may make more nutritious choices to improve their health outcomes,” explains CHW Associate Dean and Associate Professor Rebecca Simon. “It will include students from public health, nutrition, culinary and even business and engineering. The possibilities for collaboration are endless.”
Clinical Experience and Community Support
That collaboration continues beyond the Â鶹¹ÙÍø campus in the form of clinical experiences and community support. The nursing program’s clinical rotations provide hands-on experience and exposure to different specialties in healthcare, including pediatrics, obstetrics, acute care, mental health and community health. By working with healthcare professionals, nursing students discover the complexities of delivering care as a team. They also work with nonprofit community partners, learning the importance of self-esteem and self-worth to people who are often in various stages of crisis. The experience provides a real-life perspective that these students will carry with them into their professional lives.
“The program aims to fill the theory-practice gap, enabling our students to be ready to meet the challenges of today’s ever-changing healthcare industry,” notes Kiley Medeiros, interim director of Providence’s nursing program. “We are able to offer multidisciplinary, interprofessional, simulation and various hands-on clinical experiences to prepare our students to enter the healthcare workforce as a new registered nurse, and ultimately improve health outcomes.”
Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s PT program is among the top 1% of PT programs nationwide in terms of clinical hours; students receive a competitive edge by spending 40 hours per week for 40 weeks in supervised care settings. They also engage in 90 hours of integrative clinical experience when they are in class and on internships. Employers are taking note; they have committed to hiring our students and providing their expertise and assistance. Faculty are active practitioners in and out of the classroom — many with decades of experience working and teaching in their specialty. They provide students with strong foundational knowledge before introducing specialties in electives such as imaging and adaptive sports.
Â鶹¹ÙÍø & Wales is the only university in New England to have an adaptive sports program. Justin Lafferier, PT, Ph.D., associate director and associate professor in the physical therapy doctorate program, says, “Adaptive sports is a venue to break down barriers that people don’t even realize they have bias towards.” He notes that people with disabilities accomplish more with adaptive sports than in a rehab setting. Endorphins are released as people with similar conditions interact and compete — and students see that improvement in real time. The adaptive sport doesn’t have to be intense to reap benefits — participants obtain goals that they weren’t able to in the clinic as they are reintegrated in society and gain acceptance of their disability.
Students also benefit from Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s Center for Student Research and Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Zachery Edwards ’22, a health sciences graduate and research fellow at the center, says, “The environment boosted my confidence in my abilities while increasing my understanding of how important interprofessional and interdisciplinary collaboration is. It prepared me for multiple leadership roles by providing me with the skills necessary to manage group dynamics and be a successful contributor in those settings.”
Edward and a group of peers recognized the need for a forum to talk about what they’re learning. They created the Healthy Equity Club, which allows students to reflect and reframe their experiences while learning about new and interesting topics that may be applied to their fieldwork. They build a network of support and choose the topic and the content.
“The Health Equity Club is where students get the chance to take their learning from the scholarly to the personal,” says Associate Professor Samantha Rosenthal. “They have created a space to address sensitive or even controversial topics with their peers so they can work through the challenges they may be facing.”
Back in the nursing lab, students are practicing how to give subcutaneous injections. One student, in her haste to remember all steps, forgets to use a circular motion to clean the injection site. Woolery gently corrects her, miming the correct motion. The nervous student sheepishly replies, “I’ve never done this before.”
Woolery places her hand on the student’s forearm in sympathy and support. “This is a safe space,” she assures.
The student smiles in relief and returns to her task. Like many CHW students before her and the many that will come after, she succeeds and gains confidence.
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