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An artist’s rendering of the Center for College of Nursing Sciences, which will be constructed behind the College of Nursing building in Omaha. Ground will break today on the new facility, which will help the college face the nursing shortage in Nebraska. |
Today in Omaha, the college will host a ceremonial groundbreaking for a building that will enable the college to enroll more nursing students and prepare more nurse faculty.
A $14 million, 43,000-square-foot building will be adjacent to the college’s current facility at 42nd Street and Dewey Ave. The free-standing Center for College of Nursing Sciences will be funded entirely through private donations. The projected opening date is March 2010.
Omaha philanthropists Ruth and Bill Scott provided the lead gift for the center.
“This very generous gift from Ruth and Bill Scott will help us increase the number of nurses who will care for our loved ones across the state and beyond,” said UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D. “Nurses are the backbone of health care. Our call for more nurses to alleviate the shortage has been answered by the Scotts.”
Dr. Maurer will be joined during the ceremony by other leaders from the University of Nebraska and UNMC, as well as local and state government, including Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, University of Nebraska Regent Randy Ferlic, M.D., University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken and UNMC College of Nursing Dean Virginia Tilden, D.N.Sc.
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Omaha philanthropists Ruth and Bill Scott have provided the lead gift for the new nursing center. |
The projected shortage of nurses in Nebraska is expected to reach 20 percent by 2020 — about 3,800 registered nurses — with rural areas hit hardest. A large percentage of nurses are employed in hospital settings.
By 2020, 112 more UNMC students will graduate and enter the workforce annually. In addition, 24 more nurse faculty will be added to the current 61 in Omaha, as well as 11 more researchers and staff.
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Harold M. Maurer, M.D. |
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Virginia Tilden, D.N.Sc. |
Dr. Tilden noted the average age of nursing faculty in Nebraska is 53, and large numbers of faculty will retire in the coming decade.
UNMC is grateful to the Scotts, she said.
“Everywhere you look at this university, you see the hand of Ruth and Bill Scott,” Dr. Tilden said. “They’re just such wonderful, generous, visionary and humble friends of UNMC. They observe trends, they look for opportunities to help and they are moved by what will matter for Nebraska.
“We are just so deeply touched and affected by this gift. The college is 90 years old and this is the largest and most generous gift in the college’s history.”
The college’s current building, which houses and will continue to house classrooms, clinical skills labs, research labs and offices, is overcrowded and doesn’t meet university space standards, Dr. Tilden said. The new center will include five additional classrooms, nine clinical skills development laboratories, conference space, five research spaces, a student technology cluster and technology teaching lab as well as office space. The project also will provide funds for minor remodeling in the college’s current building.
The center also will help the college in its goal to double its research funding by the year 2020, Dr. Tilden said. It currently is ranked 28th out of 102 schools of nursing in National Institutes of Health grant funding.
Rosanna Morris, chief nursing officer at The Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC’s hospital partner, said a proactive approach to ensure more individuals go into nursing will serve the community well.
“We know the number of individuals seeking health care within the next 10 to 15 years will increase significantly,” Morris said. “It’s a phenomenal time for the UNMC College of Nursing to take such a fundamental step to continue to increase the number of women and men accepted into the nursing program.
“That will significantly benefit the community at large. I applaud their efforts and congratulate them on a tremendous accomplishment.”
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“Being a nurse gives me a chance to help people and make a difference,” Babcock said. “Patient care is the center of my passion and what drives me to further my health care goals. What the Scotts are doing with this generous gift is influencing the health and lives of so many people.”
Ruth Scott’s passion for nursing and the health of others were factors that influenced the Scotts’ decision to make a gift to nursing.
“You sure can’t be sick and be in the hospital if you don’t have a good nurse,” she said. “Nursing has always been a driving force with me. I had this desire and said if I ever had money to help health-wise, I would. Now I’m trying to do something.”
Scott said she’d always wanted to be a nurse but when she was 13, a doctor told her she would have to think about another career because of her health problems at the time.
“I tell my granddaughters, ‘Be a nurse,’ and that nursing is a really satisfying career,” she said. “The job opportunities are astronomical no matter where you live.”
The college’s other major projects to expand student enrollment include:
- A proposed $17.5 million facility for the Lincoln Division to be completed in 2012;
- Northeast Community College and Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk are leading a capital campaign to build a $12.9 million facility to establish a division in northeast Nebraska;
- The West Nebraska Division in Scottsbluff recently completed a $600,000 renovation; and
- The Kearney Division will be upgrading classroom technology.
The UNMC College of Nursing employs 132 full- and part-time faculty and has an average annual enrollment of 1,000 students in its programs, which include a bachelor’s degree in nursing, master’s degree in nursing and doctoral degree in nursing. One half of Nebraska’s bachelor-degree prepared nurses are graduates of the college. Consistently, about 95 percent of its graduates get jobs in Nebraska.