New York will establish a statewide nursing simulation training hub at Binghamton University with a $10 million investment split evenly between state SUNY capital funding and a campus match, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced. The center is intended to train nursing educators and clinicians, not to provide new clinical care to patients.
The governor's announcement says the Systemwide Nursing Simulation Center of Excellence will expand a four-campus SUNY network. Binghamton and the University at Buffalo will be systemwide centers, while SUNY Canton and Stony Brook University will serve as regional centers.
The Binghamton hub will offer training in simulation-based teaching, clinical education, simulation operations and center management. Planned offerings include simulation-focused microcredentials and a fully online master's program for people preparing to teach nursing. The university expects the programs to enroll more than 150 students a year once fully operating; that is a projection, not current enrollment.
Building on earlier nursing investments
The new $10 million commitment is separate from the $62 million state investment announced in 2025 for simulation centers at Buffalo, Canton and Stony Brook. FingerLakes1.com reported that earlier award at the time. SUNY also says it has directed more than $4.4 million through a High Needs Nursing Fund to simulation education across 40 nursing programs over three years.
State legislation signed in 2023 allows nursing students to complete up to one-third of their clinical training through qualifying simulation experiences. The planned hub would help prepare faculty to use those methods and would support training involving physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology students alongside nurses.
The administration describes the investment as part of a goal to increase New York's health care workforce by 20%. The announcement does not give an opening date for the Binghamton hub, a construction timetable, or a measured estimate of how many additional nurses it will produce. It also does not identify a direct new allocation to Finger Lakes campuses.
SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. said the system is using simulation to prepare nursing students and address workforce shortages. The university said the center will build on its existing Innovative Simulation and Practice Center at Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
For local nursing students and employers, the immediate change is a statewide faculty-training resource rather than a new local clinical site. Whether it expands program capacity in the Finger Lakes will depend on how SUNY campuses use the network after the Binghamton center is established.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.