Baptist Health College Little Rock

Baptist Health College Little Rock (BHCLR), a part of Baptist Health Medical Center–Little Rock, focuses on healthcare education as guided by the workforce needs in the central Arkansas region. BHCLR offers a Christian campus environment and a long history of medical training that goes back to the earliest days of the Baptist Health system.

Established in 1920 in Little Rock (Pulaski County), what was then the Arkansas Baptist Hospital School of Nursing was based in the Baptist State Hospital, which itself was founded that year when the Arkansas Baptist State Convention purchased the old Battle Creek Sanatorium for $58,350. In 1921, the Arkansas Baptist Hospital School of Nursing graduated five students. There were no graduates in 1922, but in 1923 the school had five more graduates, and in 1924 its graduating class had grown to seventeen. In 1940, the nursing school was moved into a separate building, complete with classrooms, a recreation room, and labs. The building, located on the same campus as the hospital at 13th and Wolfe streets, was enlarged in 1944 to include more classrooms and dormitory rooms. The college graduated its first male nurse in 1950.

The school later moved from its downtown location to a spot along Colonel Glenn Road in western Little Rock. The name of the institution was changed to Baptist Health College Little Rock on July 1, 2015. The college exists under the larger Baptist Health umbrella, but the CEO of Baptist Health is not the head of the college, which was its own chancellor.

Baptist Health College Little Rock offers nine programs of study in direct and indirect patient care: practical nursing, registered nursing, histotechnology, medical laboratory science, nuclear medicine technology, radiography, occupational therapy, sleep technology, and surgical technology. In 2015, Baptist Health College Little Rock became an official degree-granting college, offering the Associate of Applied Science degree in nursing for registered-nursing students (before that, it was considered diploma-credentialing). The college offers one-year certificate programs, two-year associate degrees, and a number of baccalaureate degree programs in affiliation with partnering colleges and universities in central Arkansas. BHCLR is institutionally accredited by the Arkansas Department of Education and, on average, has 800 students per semester and eight-five faculty members.

For additional information:
Baptist Health College Little Rock. https://www.bhclr.edu/ (accessed June 15, 2023).

Friedman, Mark. “Simulated Hospital, Real Nurse Trainees.” Arkansas Business, June 26–July 2, 2023, pp. 1, 6.

Matt Dishongh
Baptist Health