University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing Dean Virginia Tilden, D.N.Sc., will visit Nebraska City on Wednesday, Oct. 8, to speak at a Rotary luncheon at the Avenue Grill on Main St.
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 — more than 3,800 registered nurses — with rural areas expected to be the 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.
She said even though the college has increased its enrollment by 28 percent since 2002, the college needs to hire more faculty and expand its facilities to increase capacity to be able to educate more nurses for the state. “We 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,” she said.
The UNMC College of Nursing Lincoln Division recently received approval from the Board of Regents to build a new $17.5 million facility in Lincoln, to be completed in 2012. A generous donor in Omaha also has made possible an additional facility to be built for the UNMC College of Nursing in Omaha.
In Norfolk, the UNMC College of Nursing is planning a division through a community partnership that includes Northeast Community College and Faith Regional Health Services. The Norfolk community is spearheading a regional effort to raise $12.9 million to fund construction of a new nursing facility.
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 has an enrollment of about 1,000 students.
UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through their commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have established themselves as one of the country’s leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics, biomedical technology and ophthalmology. UNMC’s research funding from external sources now exceeds $82 million annually and has resulted in the creation of more than 2,400 highly skilled jobs in the state. UNMC’s physician practice group, UNMC Physicians, includes 513 physicians in 50 specialties and subspecialties who practice primarily in The Nebraska Medical Center. For more information, go to UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu.
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