Dominican University Doubles Nursing Program Capacity With New State Grant

Dominican University, based in River Forest, is doubling the capacity of its nursing program after receiving a new state grant aimed specifically at addressing chronic healthcare staffing shortages across Chicago's western suburbs.

The grant will fund additional nursing faculty positions, new clinical simulation equipment, and scholarships for students from Oak Park and River Forest communities where the university has traditionally drawn much of its student body. University officials said the program has consistently rejected qualified applicants in recent years due to limited faculty and clinical placement capacity rather than lack of student interest.

"We have more students who want to become nurses than we've ever had, and until now we simply couldn't accept all of them," said the dean of Dominican's nursing program. "This funding lets us stop turning away students who are fully capable of doing this work."

Dominican has partnered with a regional health system to expand available clinical rotation slots, a frequent bottleneck for nursing programs nationally. University officials said the expanded program is expected to graduate its first larger cohort within three years, roughly doubling annual nursing graduates.

Regional health officials have welcomed the expansion as a direct response to nursing shortages at western suburb hospitals, several of which have relied heavily on traveling nurse contracts in recent years to fill staffing gaps. Dominican said its nursing graduates disproportionately remain in the western suburbs to work compared with graduates of programs closer to downtown Chicago.