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Leading the Future of Care
By the year 2025, the population of our country’s older citizens is expected to
We are positioned to double. Nurses will play a crucial role in preventing disease and providing care
be one of the nation’s to the aging and chronically ill within a diverse patient population. Despite their
leaders in educating increasing importance, however, it is estimated that the U.S. will face a shortage
the next generation of of 800,000 nurses by 2020.
clinicians and scientists. In response, the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing Report has challenged
The stakes are high as universities to increase the number of bachelor-prepared nurses by 80%, double
health care continues the number of nurses with doctoral degrees, and broaden the scope of practice
to evolve. Gifts in the for advance practice nurses. Not only do we need more nurses, we also need
form of current use and more nursing faculty who are prepared to educate the next generation of nurses
endowed scholarships and continue to advance the science of our profession.
provide essential It is not enough, however, just to graduate more nurses. The School of Nursing
support that ensures is fundamentally rethinking how nurses are educated and deployed in the
we are able to provide workforce. We must prepare students for a wide range of careers not just at
the best programs, now the bedside, but in the laboratory, classroom, and boardroom—and in the
and in the future. communities where they live and work.
Here is a prime example: through the Institute for Innovative Education,
nursing and medical students from the School of Nursing and the School of
Medicine and Dentistry are learning in a cooperative environment that blends
our educational traditions with emerging technologies. This unique partnership
builds on our history of innovation and educating for the future. With your
support of this program and others, we can ensure that our graduates will be
among our nation’s leading educators, practitioners, and researchers.
The Campaign for the School of Nursing 4