Philanthropists Joanne and William E. Conway Jr. have pledged $5 million to UNC to both support the school’s nursing students and develop nursing educators. The gift is the largest in school history to support students, according to a release from the university on Thursday.
“I am inspired by the Conways’ thoughtful and innovative approach to addressing one of the nation’s significant health care challenges through their support of nursing education,” said UNC chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. “Nurses are vital to a compassionate health care system — we cannot do it without them — and Carolina feels keenly its responsibility to help meet the need for more nurses in our state.”
The Conways are based in the Washington, D.C. area, and the gift will be made through their Bedford Falls Foundation. It is structured to be paid out over five years and will support up to 250 undergraduates each year, as well as help the school expand enrollment by up to 50 percent. In addition, the gift will fund The Conway Scholars program, an accelerated doctoral program.
“We are deeply grateful to the Conways for their steadfast commitment to nursing education and to the nursing profession as a whole,” said Valerie Howard, dean of the School of Nursing. “The Conways are making a Carolina Nursing education more financially accessible to more students, which will positively impact our profession and, most importantly, our students, as we continue our commitment to excellence in academic nursing here at Carolina.”
Recent studies estimate the state of North Carolina could see a shortage of more than 12,000 registered nurses and more than 5,000 licensed practical nurses by the year 2033 — 11 and 27 percent of the current workforce, respectively. This model was published before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In supporting Carolina Nursing, we seek to enable greater access to a high-quality nursing education in North Carolina,” said William Conway. “And to address the critical nursing shortage both by making it more affordable to get an BSN and also by educating more educators for the next generation of BSN students.”
Featured image via UNC
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