Western Carolina University announced on Monday the School of Nursing will be receiving a grant of over $2 million to expand its nursing degree program.
This grant comes as the UNC System aims to alleviate the nursing shortage in the state. Director of WCU’s School of Nursing Dr. Terri Durbin said the university is one of 11 colleges awarded extra funding, allocated by the UNC System.
“Every school in the (UNC) system put in a proposal and every school in the system was given some funding,” Durbin said. “It varied just a little bit because everybody had different needs as you can imagine, so they were very specific and they personalized the awards based on the needs of the institutions.”
By 2033, North Carolina could face an estimated shortage of over 12,000 registered nurses and a little more than 5,000 licensed practical nurses (LPNs), according to findings by the Program on Health Workforce Research and Policy at the Cecil G Sheps Center.
Durbin explained that the nursing shortage is acute all over the country but especially in rural areas like WNC.
“What I'm hearing from our community partners is that they simply cannot fully staff their units,” Durbin explained. “Even with incentives, even with raises, they cannot fully staff inpatient units and long-term care facilities and it's going to take a multifaceted approach to fix this problem and funding for schools of nursing is a step in the right direction because for decades nursing schools have been historically underfunded. We've all been getting by on whatever we could.”
The new funds announced Monday are part of the state’s 2023 to 2025 budget and, at WCU, will be going towards:
Adding additional nursing faculty and staff
- Doubling the number of pre-licensure nursing students in the program from 30 to 60 students per cohort (spring and fall)
- Upgrading technology, simulation supplies and equipment to provide state-of-the-art training facilities
In Greenville, East Carolina University’s College of Nursing has received a significant investment of $3 million from the state to increase the number of entry-to-practice nurses who graduate from the college’s bachelor of nursing programs. Of the nine UNC System schools that applied for, and received, funding increases to support nursing programs, ECU received more than any other program.
Other colleges awarded grant funds, announced Monday, include Appalachian State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, Winston-Salem State University and others.