Wingate expands nursing program, receives $15k grant for clinical partnership

By Chuck Gordon

Wingate University's nursing program is expanding, and it recently received a $15,000 grant that will make it easier to accommodate the increase in student numbers.

The University received approval this month from the North Carolina Board of Nursing to increase its enrollment from 69 to 80 students. The increase will occur for the fall 2026 semester, with 11 students coming off the waitlist, increasing the junior-class enrollment to 46. Wingate will have 34 senior nursing students this academic year.

Dr. Michele Pfaff

Also this month, Wingate received a grant from the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) to develop a clinical instructor partnership with FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital - Richmond in Rockingham.

FirstHealth and Wingate have established a dedicated education unit (DEU) at the hospital, which means that Wingate students have priority access to clinical opportunities there. All nursing students do clinical rotations, and, starting this fall, an experienced FirstHealth Moore nurse will serve as a clinical instructor for eight senior students. The students will get hands-on, immersive instruction in medical, surgical and emergency-care clinical settings.

Nursing is a growing profession, and prior to the 2025-26 academic year, Wingate for the first time had a waitlist (of six students). This year, the waitlist grew to 15. Increasing the enrollment to a total of 80 students means that more students will need to do clinical rotations. Currently, Wingate's nursing program works with students to find clinical opportunities on an ad hoc basis.

"The agreement with FirstHealth provides us with clinical stability and the ability to increase our numbers," says Dr. Michele Pfaff, director of Wingate's nursing program.

"This grant allows us to partner with FHMRH-Richmond to expand our available clinical sites while upskilling their employees as clinical instructors," says Dr. Karen Friel, vice president for the Levine College of Health Sciences and dean of the health professions. "This forward-thinking model is just what we need as we look to expand our cohort size and can serve as a model for implementation elsewhere as well."

For FirstHealth, the partnership brings potential nursing employees to its hospital. Healthcare facilities in small, rural areas, such as Richmond County, have a more difficult time filling provider positions than those in larger areas. Bringing in clinical students can help entice nurses to work in those areas.

"The Dukes, the Atriums, the UNC Chapel Hills, they've got plenty of students," Pfaff says, "but when you get out to the rural community hospitals, they don't have as many students coming there."

Wingate will also develop a rural-health educational module that all nursing students will be required to complete.

"They're going to see different patients out in the ER in Rockingham than they're going to see at CMC Main," Pfaff says.

FirstHealth Moore Hospital - Richmond is about a 50-minute drive from the Wingate campus, which is comparable to the drive time to many of the clinical sites now in use by the University.

Find out more about Wingate's bachelor of science in nursing program.

June 17, 2026