Gift to the UC Denver School of Nursing Aims to Improve Access to Care in Rural Colorado $1.9 million will bring new nurses to rural towns
Contact: Jacque Montgomery, 303-724-1520, jacque.montgomery@uchsc.edu
DENVER (Nov. 21, 2007) – Colorado’s nursing shortage in rural parts of the state is getting some much needed attention thanks to a $1.9 million gift to the University of Colorado Denver School of Nursing. The just announced gift will create the Daniel and Janet Mordecai Rural Health Nursing Endowed Chair and four Rural Health Nursing Endowed Fellowships; an innovative nursing program with hopes of attracting more nurses to rural communities.
In addition to a nursing shortage in hospitals across the state and in medical clinics in rural areas, the nursing profession also is experiencing a shortage of qualified faculty to educate students. This gift will enable the UC Denver School of Nursing to create the Daniel and Janet Mordecai Chair in Rural Health Nursing to recruit a distinguished nurse scholar to initiate a rural health nursing program that will educate nurses with the hope that they will remain in rural areas and administer care. An anticipated ripple effect will enable rural hospitals to “grow” their own educated nurses who will then remain there to serve their communities and educate other rural nurses.
The remaining $400,000 has been endowed to create four Rural Health Nursing Fellowships. These fellowships will be awarded to two Masters of Science students and two Doctor of Nursing Practice or PhD graduate nursing students who focus their studies on rural health and agree to future employment in rural areas. Nursing Fellows will be required to remain in rural areas for a minimum of three years.
Janet Mordecai founded the Daniel and Janet Mordecai Foundation in 2003, a year after her husband Daniel’s death from pancreatic cancer. The Foundation supports programs in the areas of health, culture and performing arts, community outreach and education. Janet’s passion to supporting health care comes from her 35-year nursing career.
The University of Colorado Denver School of Nursing, as an integral part of its parent institution, is dedicated to the pursuit of higher learning grounded in the arts, sciences, and humanities. The School of Nursing shares the missions of the University of Colorado Denver: improving human health by educating health practitioners, delivering exemplary health care, and conducting research in the health sciences. The philosophy and mission of SON are focused on education, research, reflective practice, and service within nursing.
The University of Colorado Denver is one of three universities in the University of Colorado system. Located in Denver on the Downtown Campus and at Ninth & Colorado Blvd., and on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., University of Colorado Denver is Colorado’s premier research university offering more than 100 degrees and programs in 12 schools and colleges and serving more than 28,000 students in Metro Denver and online. For more information, visit the web site at www.uchsc.edu or the UC Denver Newsroom at www.uchsc.edu/news.