The School of Nursing will receive funding from 91探花Medical Center for a new endowed professorship, Dr. Nancy Woods, dean of the School of Nursing, announced earlier this month. The $250,000 gift, to be made over a five-year period, will establish the 91探花 Medical Center Endowed Professorship in Nursing Leadership.
鈥淯WMC鈥檚 support of an endowed professorship reflects our growing partnership and the medical center鈥檚 understanding of the critical need to support nurse leaders during our national nursing shortage,鈥� Woods said. 鈥淏ecause of high competition for a shrinking number of nursing faculty, this professorship will help the school attract or retain a top faculty member and will serve to help educate our nurse leaders of tomorrow.鈥�
The UWMC Endowed Professorship in Nursing Leadership will enhance the base salary of a full-time faculty member in the 91探花School of Nursing, helping to make salaries more competitive with those at peer institutions. The award will recognize an outstanding faculty leader and support his or her work in educating future nurse leaders, both in academic and clinical settings.
鈥淚t is one of the pivotal positions that illustrates the more formal relationship that the medical center and the School of Nursing now have built together over the last few years,鈥� said Susan Grant, chief nursing officer at UWMC and assistant dean for clinical nursing practice at the School of Nursing. 鈥淢y goal and Nancy Woods鈥� goal was to build that bridge and to strengthen our partnership so that we could strengthen nursing and consequently strengthen the patient care that we deliver.
鈥淣ursing leaders reside in various settings and at all levels of the nursing organization, whether it鈥檚 academic or practice-based, and that leadership provides the vision for where we want to be with patient care and the patient experience,鈥� Grant continued. 鈥淭he future of nursing lies in the academic and practice partnership, and the strength that you build through collaboration.鈥�