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On October 22, 2008 in Omaha, the UNMC College of Nursing hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking for a building that will enable the college to enroll more nursing students and prepare more nurse faculty.
| Watch the Groundbreaking |
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A $14 million, 43,000-square-foot building will be built adjacent to the college's current facility at 42nd Street and Dewey Avenue. The free-standing Center for College of Nursing Sciences will be funded entirely through private donations. Projected opening 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 was 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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Building features include:
- 5 classrooms (adds 4,935 square feet
- 9 clinical skills development laboratories (adds 4,791 square feet)
- 6 conference rooms/instructional space
- 5 research spaces
- Student interaction space
- Techonology cluster and technology teaching lab
- Faculty offices
- Computer cluster
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The new facility will enable the college to annually enroll 265 additional students in Omaha by the year 2020 - an increase of nearly 70 percent over the current 385 students. The college also will dramatically increase graduates in its master's and doctoral programs - programs that prepare nurses to become faculty members.
Other major projects to expand student enrollment include: a proposed $17.5 million facility for the Lincoln Division to be completed in 2012; and in Norfolk, Northeast Community College and Faith Regional Health Services are leading a capital campaign to build a $12.9 million facility to establish a division. The West Nebraska Division in Scottsfluff recently completed a $600,000 renovation and the Kearney Division will be upgrading classroom technology
The UNMC College of Nursing, which employs 132 full and part-time faculty, 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.
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