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Virginia Tilden, D.N.Sc. |
Last night, Dr. Tilden attended a public open house at the newly renovated nursing division in the Panhandle Research and Extension Center. The college just completed an extensive renovation project that will improve nursing education, boost morale and help recruit more students and faculty members.
The renovation in the 1960s-era building was funded by UNMC and the University of Nebraska Foundation, with support from the community.
Today at noon at the Scottsbluff Country Club Ballroom, Dr. Tilden will speak at a Rotary meeting. The title of her talk is “Who Will Care for You and Yours?”
She will address the current and projected nursing shortage, repercussions of the aging population for nursing, why higher nursing education is important, and what the UNMC College of Nursing is doing to solve the nursing shortage in Nebraska.
The projected shortage of nurses in Nebraska is expected to be 20 percent by 2020 — about 3,800 registered nurses — with rural areas to be hardest hit.
“Nurses are on the frontline of health and a critical shortage of nurses is facing Nebraska communities, Dr. Tilden said. “But there isn’t a shortage of those wanting to be nurses. The number of applications to nursing schools exceeds the capacity of educational programs. Adding to that is a shortage of nursing faculty. Not only are faculty in short supply, many are approaching retirement age.
“Even though the college has increased its enrollment by 28 percent since 2002 without new facilities and without hiring more faculty, we now must act to make more nurses available for our state. We also need the help of Nebraskans to meet the challenge. Only through community involvement and support can we change the direction in which we’re heading.”
One of the things the college is doing to ease the nursing shortage is expanding its capacity to educate more students through additional space and faculty.
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The UNMC College of Nursing is planning a division in Norfolk through a community partnership that includes Northeast Community College and Faith Regional Health Services. Norfolk and communities in the region are spearheading a $12.9 million community fundraising campaign.
Founded in 1917, the UNMC College of Nursing, based in Omaha, has divisions in Lincoln, Kearney and Scottsbluff. One half of Nebraska’s bachelor-degree prepared nurses are graduates of the UNMC College of Nursing. The college employs 132 full- and part-time faculty and enrolls about 1,000 students a year.