Ruth and Bill Scott of Omaha have made a leadership gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to support the UNMC College of Nursing’s new facility, to be located on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s east campus.
Completion of the new facility further allows the college to address the state’s critical shortage of nurses and nursing educators.
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Bill and Ruth Scott |
Support for this project is a top priority of the foundation’s “Campaign for Nebraska: Unlimited Possibilities” campaign, which ends Dec. 31.
John Scott, director of the Ruth and Bill Scott Family Foundation, said the gift is offered as a challenge to encourage others to consider additional giving to the initiative.
“We invite others who care deeply about the importance of quality nurses and the future of the state’s health to join us in this important project,” he said. “It will benefit not only the Lincoln community but Nebraskans across the state.”
This building will be the first permanent home for the College of Nursing in Lincoln, replacing the college’s current location in downtown Lincoln.
“The new facility gives us the capacity to increase our number of nursing students, which is vital to Nebraska’s future,” said UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. “Our state’s nursing workforce shortage is widening as a growing population of older adults requires more care. Rural areas, including southeast Nebraska, will be hardest hit.
“We greatly appreciate Ruth and Bill Scott’s commitment and foresight in helping us construct a facility that will provide the space to educate more students, attract more nursing faculty and raise the level of nursing education and research.”
In recent years the college has been forced to turn away qualified applicants due to space limitations and insufficient faculty.
“The nursing shortage is predicted to be with us for some time with health reform likely to increase the needs for nurse practitioners to provide primary care and registered nurses to care for critically ill patients in hospitals and provide health promotion and long term care,” said Juliann Sebastian, Ph.D., dean of the UNMC College of Nursing. “We will need more faculty members to teach the additional students and to conduct the research that is the foundation for the best care.”