Northeastern is expanding its network to southeastern Massachusetts with the opening of a small campus in Fall River dedicated to its accelerated nursing program for the start of the fall 2025 semester.
The campus will be located on the fifth floor of 277 Pleasant St. in Fall River, a building that currently houses healthcare provider Prima CARE and Saint Anne’s Hospital outpatient services, according to the Fall River Herald News. Fall River, a city of about 94,000 people, is approximately 18 miles from Providence, Rhode Island and 52 miles from Boston.
Northeastern currently offers its accelerated nursing program out of the Burlington and Charlotte campuses. The Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing, or ABSN, program at Northeastern allows students to earn their nursing degree in as few as 16 months through a hybrid curriculum involving online coursework, nursing labs and clinical rotations. To be considered for the program, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree in a non-nursing field or at least 62 transferable credits from an accredited college or university.
Amanda Choflet, the dean of Northeastern’s School of Nursing, told the Herald News that the ABSN program is “at capacity and turning students away” at its other locations in both Burlington and Boston.
Choflet also said administrators from Saint Anne’s Hospital and nursing colleagues “reached out to [Northeastern],” saying it has become increasingly hard to attract nurses to the Fall River area. The new ABSN program location seeks to reverse the shortage of nurses in the area and “fill a community need,” Choflet said.
By the time the campus launches in August 2025, the fifth floor of 277 Pleasant St. will contain two large classrooms, and the sixth floor of the building will be utilized for interdisciplinary training, Choflet told the Herald News. This includes student access to the Bioskills of the Northeast, or BONE, educational lab located in the Prima CARE building.
BONE, which also partners with Northeastern, is a training center for healthcare students and professionals and specializes in medical education and research. At Prima CARE, BONE offers trainings in bioskills, robotics, surgical skills, medical research and more through simulation and training facilities.
The Fall River campus marks the 15th location in Northeastern’s global network. The university currently has 13 campuses operating domestically and internationally and announced a merger with Marymount Manhattan College in New York City in May.
“We are going to build a really strong and meaningful collaboration with the local community in Fall River to develop excellent, practice-ready nurses that drive positive change in health care delivery in the area,” Choflet told the university-run media outlet Northeastern Global News.
