Coordinating Board awards Texas Woman’s University more than $375,000 to address nursing shortage

by PegNews wire

Texas Woman’s University — already the state’s largest educator of new nurses — will be able to graduate even more nurses to alleviate the nursing shortage thanks to a grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB).

TWU will use $378,167 in Professional Nursing Shortage Reduction Program grant funds from the THECB to hire additional nursing faculty and provide stipends to retain current faculty.

“One of the factors contributing to the state and national nursing shortage is the lack of qualified faculty available to educate students who want to become nurses,” said Dr. Pat Holden-Huchton, dean of the TWU College of Nursing. “These funds will allow TWU to help address this shortage by increasing our ability to attract highly-qualified faculty in order to graduate more new nurses to serve the citizens of Texas.”

The 80th Texas Legislature appropriated funds to the THECB in fiscal year 2007 for the Professional Nursing Shortage Reduction Program. These funds are being distributed to the state’s public and private nursing programs that show an increase in the total number of nursing graduates at the associate, baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degree level.

For more information, visit www.thecb.state.tx.us/PA/NSGP/.

Source: TWU