Nursing students at Rutgers-Camden are about to train on the kind of equipment they’ll actually use once they graduate.
Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden and the Rutgers University Foundation announced a $300,000 contribution from Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday, funding a full modernization of the school’s Simulation Lab — soon to be renamed the Johnson & Johnson Nursing Simulation Lab — along with a new scholarship fund for first-generation nursing students.
The money will pay for high-fidelity patient simulators, electronic medical record training systems, virtual and AI-enabled simulation technology, and a new pharmacology lab. It will also establish the Rutgers School of Nursing-Camden Johnson & Johnson Scholarship, which will hand out five $10,000 scholarships to first-generation nursing students facing financial barriers to entering the field.
Donna Nickitas, dean of Rutgers University School of Nursing–Camden, said the investment reaches both the classroom and who gets to be in it.
“At Rutgers University School of Nursing–Camden, we are preparing nurses who are not only clinically excellent, but also compassionate, adaptive, and ready to lead in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape,” Nickitas said. “By modernizing our simulation learning environment and expanding scholarship support for first-generation nursing students, this initiative strengthens our ability to deliver a rigorous, practice-ready education while opening doors for talented students whose voices, experiences, and leadership are essential to the future of nursing.”
The university held a dedication ceremony to formally open the upgraded facilities, drawing university leaders, Johnson & Johnson representatives, elected officials, faculty and students. The event also marked decades of partnership between Johnson & Johnson and Rutgers.
Howard Reid, Johnson & Johnson’s vice president of corporate brand and purpose, said the sponsorship builds on a relationship with nurses dating back more than a century.
“Nurses are the backbone of healthcare and are essential to advancing health outcomes,” Reid said. “Johnson & Johnson has supported nurses since 1897. This sponsorship to Rutgers-Camden reflects our longstanding commitment to elevating the critical role nurses play in healthcare delivery and strengthening the nursing workforce through education, innovation, and partnership.”
Simulation-based training has become a bigger piece of how nursing students learn — giving them a place to build clinical judgment and decision-making skills on realistic scenarios before they ever step into a real patient room. School officials say the new lab is meant to keep pace with a healthcare workforce shortage that isn’t going away anytime soon.
