Officials from CaroMont Health and the college participate in a ribbon-cutting Jan. 8. (Photos provided) BELMONT — Students in the nursing program at Belmont Abbey College soon will be able to learn more about their chosen profession only minutes from campus.
On Jan. 8, CaroMont Regional Medical Center-Belmont opened its doors to patients on 28 acres adjacent to the college. It was the fulfilment of a process that began in 2020, when Gastonia-based CaroMont Health entered into an agreement with the college and the Benedictine monks at Belmont Abbey to lease land for a new state-of-the-art hospital and medical campus.
At a ribbon-cutting ceremony the day before, Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari and Belmont Abbey College’s President William Thierfelder joined CaroMont executives in celebrating the new facility. As the medical center increases its caseload in the coming months, Belmont Abbey nursing students will be able to begin their clinicals there.
The facility is part of Caromont Health’s commitment to invest more than $400 million in construction and expansion projects in and around Gaston County.
The five-story, 275,000-square-foot hospital has 54 licensed inpatient beds and 16 emergency department rooms. It features a labor and delivery unit, a surgical suite with two operating rooms, an OB/GYN suite and endoscopy/bronchoscopy suite, five waiting areas, a chapel and a cafeteria.
It provides not only new health care opportunities for patients in Gaston County and surrounding areas, but also a range of opportunities for students in the college’s nursing program, which offers both bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
“Having CaroMont’s medical center actually on our property is very, very exciting and offers many advantages for our nursing program,” said Dr. Lee-Ann Kenny, chair and director of the program. “CaroMont has been a vital partner since the inception of our program in 2022, and this new facility will strengthen that relationship even more. This is going to definitely be a significant draw for students who will know they have such a state-of-the-art hospital in the backyard.”
The nursing program has 50 students enrolled and is expected to grow, Kenny said.
The college partners with CaroMont and other area health care systems for training and clinicals, and Belmont Abbey students now are completing clinicals at the 476-bed CaroMont Regional Medical Center in Gastonia. Plans call for students to begin clinicals at the new Belmont hospital in the fall, but Kenny said that will depend on whether the hospital is serving enough patients to accommodate them.
CaroMont Regional Medical Center-Belmont opened on Jan. 9 on 28 acres adjacent to the campus of Belmont Abbey College.“We’re hoping for the fall but it could possibly be January or the spring,” she said.
The new hospital’s proximity to Belmont Abbey College will also enable Kenny and her staff to fine-tune the curriculum and clinical experiences, she said.
“We are very focused on what the community needs – that was a big consideration in beginning the nursing program here, as well as the national shortage of nurses, which was also a big factor,” Kenny said. “A huge part of the philosophy for our program was to create a community, home-grown workforce so that students who are from here can get educated here, and then go out and serve their community.”
The nursing program has drawn students from Gaston County, across North Carolina and many other states, Kenny said. Student Ellie Burger is excited about future opportunities.
“The Abbey’s nursing program has prepared me so well for practice and has allowed me to show the love of Christ in a very special way,” Burger said.
Kenny originally came to Belmont Abbey as a faculty member but readily took on the challenge of leading the nursing program, an experience she said is special.
“We have a strong, soulful, beautiful Christian faculty that obviously loves nursing and loves what they’re doing,” she said. “There is just a different environment here because we are grounded in Catholic tradition and the Benedictine hallmarks.”
The religious order’s 10 hallmarks – humility, obedience, discipline, stability, community, conversation, stewardship, hospitality, prayer and love – are what nursing is all about, Kenny said.
“Every class embraces the Benedictine hallmarks, and the students integrate them into practice with their patients.”
At the beginning of each academic year, Abbot Placid blesses the hands of the students and faculty. The graduating seniors asked him to return at their pinning ceremonies to bless their hands as they begin their careers.
“That means so much to these students – they truly feel the power of his blessing,” Kenny said.
— Christina Lee Knauss