The Texas Tech Health Sciences Center is one of five recipients in Texas of a $1 million grant from the Texas Workforce Commission to go toward increasing retention rates and faculty development.
The grant is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and will help nursing schools throughout the state.
“Texas Tech is pleased to represent a coalition of nurses throughout Texas,” said Alexia Green, dean of the Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing.
The money will be going toward supporting growth and accountability, developing regional academic partnerships and leverage for other partnerships, according to a presentation supplied by Green.
The HSC plans to do this by sharing and redesigning curriculum, sharing faculty and faculty development, and sharing clinical simulation resources, she said.
Patricia Allen, a professor in the school, said to help increase retention rates, the university will work with other schools to fill open slots in nursing programs throughout the state.
“There are a significant number of students turned away each year from the nursing program,” Allen said. “We would be using things like simulators and new curriculum to keep the retention rates up.”
According to the presentation, 42 nursing programs out of 98 have a retention rate of fewer than 70 percent, some graduating fewer than 20 percent. The presentation also said the schools that keep their retention rate above 70 percent will receive awards such as more grant funding.
Green and Allen said they believe new teaching methods could help bring these numbers up.
Because of a shortage a teachers, Allen said, some of the faculty development funding will go toward the sharing of faculty through online simulations.
“We will be developing URLs and Web sites to target at finding new faculty,” she said.
With the new teaching developments and curriculum, the schools will be able to accept more qualified students into the nursing program.
Green’s presentation included the retention targets and show where the numbers will be at if the university continues at a constant enrollment rate. The numbers show that 8,510 new nurses are in Texas while 9,717 are needed. The projections showed that by 2020, the state will have 13,297 new nurses while 24,870 will be needed.
If the team accomplishes what it is trying to do, according to the presentation, 15,000 new nurses will be in Texas in 2013 and 25,000 by 2020.
“We are trying to help schools all over Texas,” Allen said. “The projects we have planned will ultimately improve.”
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