Architect's rendering of the renovated UIW Nursing Building.

The Nursing Building will be remodeled and expanded, and the latest equipment purchased, to ensure that UIW’s School of Nursing and Health Professions maintains its reputation as one of the best in the Southwest. A new addition will be built, the main lecture hall and second-floor classrooms will be remodeled, and existing space will be transformed into a “mock-up,” fully equipped hospital setting, rewired with the latest technology. These improvements will make the nursing facility a top-notch, 21st Century complex.

Campaign Amount: $6.3 Million

Benefits to Students

• Learn in a mock-up of a model hospital setting fully equipped with defibrillators, IV pumps, ICUs and OB units and medical imaging modalities will allow students to gain confidence through first-hand experiences.
  
• Receive hands-on training with current technology, including computerized patient simulators, with which students can practice diagnostic skills in near true-life experiences.

Benefits to Faculty

• With updated technology, faculty can provide the highest quality education available in a university classroom and laboratory setting.
  
• The newly remodeled, high-tech building will attract and retain qualified prospective faculty as instructors.

Benefits to Community and Stakeholders

• A modern facility will attract qualified students to the program, many of them Hispanics, who will solve the nursing shortage in San Antonio and South Texas.
  
• Many of the students who graduate from UIW’s nursing program will remain in San Antonio as bilingual nurses.
  
• Highly visible naming opportunities are available for prospective donors.
  

Since its inception in 1881, University of the Incarnate Word has continued its mission of providing quality education to nursing students dedicated to serving in San Antonio and throughout South Texas after graduation. Nursing and UIW have been synonymous for decades. The first accredited baccalaureate school of nursing west of the Mississippi was established here in the 1930s and remains one of the institute’s largest, most successful programs. Among its many graduates are five Brigadier Generals of the U.S. Armed Services, including Lillian Dunlap, the first female Brigadier General of the Army.

According to a nationwide study done by NurseWeek magazine, hospital recruiters continue to scour the country trying to fill chronically empty nursing positions in hospitals. In San Antonio alone, there are between 800 and 1,000 registered nursing jobs at hospitals that are currently vacant. The situation will worsen in the next decade as baby boomers retire, leading to a reduced pool of potential nurses coupled with an increased demand for health services.

The long-term goal of the School of Nursing and Health Professions at the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) is to retain and graduate students, in particular students from underserved and minority populations, as qualified nurses to meet the rising demand for this profession. Investing in education at an institution like UIW where the majority of nursing students are Hispanic is critical to assuring a future workforce qualified to fill vacancies in the profession. Nurses graduating from UIW also have a great economic impact. Approximately 80 new graduates per year, each earning an average salary of $45,000, will generate an additional $3,600,000 in income for the community.

To meet this long-term goal, UIW will address these specific objectives:

• To increase the number of UIW graduates from the School of Nursing & Health Professions;
  
• To increase student recruitment potential and retention by making learning spaces and labs in the 38-year-old Nursing Building integrated with today’s technology;
  
• To integrate more technologically advanced equipment in practice labs to improve students’ critical thinking skills and training; and,
  
• To use classroom technology to standardize students’ clinical experiences and to help compensate for a shortage of nursing faculty that affects universities nationwide.

The UIW School of Nursing and Health Professions is one of the university’s most highly respected programs, because it proactively addresses the critical shortage of nurses, and in particular, minority nurses, in the San Antonio and South Texas region. UIW’s graduation rate is 60% of students who enrolled in the program, better than the Texas statewide average of 50%. UIW’s graduation rate could improve by as much as 15% – to a 75% graduation rate – over the next five years if the School of Nursing creates an educational environment with space that is conducive to mentoring and small-group learning.

UIW will raise $6,300,000 to update the facility that houses the School of Nursing and Health Professions. The current, two-story building has only 29,000 square feet for classrooms, laboratories and offices. UIW will add a third floor, comprising 14,500 square feet, to the Nursing Building, thus increasing classroom and laboratory space by 50%. This increase in space will lead to an increase in enrollment by 50%! With the expansion, up to 40 more students can then be admitted annually into the degree program, increasing the average number of new Nursing students from 80 to 120 per year.

This three-story addition will contain larger classrooms, a new laboratory, and more office space to accommodate increased enrollment in the Nursing program, while still meeting the stringent accreditation standards. Existing space will be used more efficiently with updated, remodeled classroom and laboratory facilities, state-of-the-art technology, and health-care training equipment. By providing a modern, updated facility, UIW’s mission of educational excellence, service and social justice will continue to be met.

Expanding the Nursing School building fits with UIW’s vision of creating new graduate schools to increase the number of health care professionals serving Texas. The Feik School of Pharmacy will graduate its first class of 70 professional pharmacists in 2010. The new UIW School of Optometry starts this fall with an inaugural class of 63 students. After graduating, many of these new professionals will return to their hometowns and regions to serve the health care needs of their communities.