Salisbury University Expands Health Sciences Programs to Serve Eastern Shore

Salisbury University is expanding its nursing and physician assistant programs, adding roughly 90 new seats across the two programs in response to persistent healthcare staffing shortages across Maryland's rural Eastern Shore.

The expansion comes after years of lobbying from regional hospital systems, including Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, which have struggled to fill nursing and allied health positions in a part of the state with fewer healthcare training programs than the Baltimore–Washington corridor. University officials said the new seats will be phased in over the next three admissions cycles.

"The Eastern Shore has a healthcare workforce problem that's been building for years, and it's not going to fix itself if the training programs stay the same size," said the dean of Salisbury University's Richard A. Henson School of Science and Technology, which houses the nursing program. "We know that students who train near where they eventually want to work are far more likely to stay in that community."

The university is also opening a new clinical simulation center on campus, featuring updated mannequin-based training equipment that allows nursing and physician assistant students to practice emergency scenarios without needing a live clinical placement for every exercise. The $6.2 million simulation center is funded through a mix of state capital funds and a donation from a regional health system.

Salisbury University officials said they expect the expanded programs to graduate their first larger cohorts within four years, with a goal of keeping the majority of graduates working within Eastern Shore counties rather than relocating to the Baltimore or Washington metro areas after graduation.