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Gift helps create online nursing curriculum The Duke Endowment has made five gifts totaling $823,292 to MUSC, enabling the institution to create a new online nursing program and continue four existing programs developed to reach underserved patients in South Carolina.  The endowment further expressed its intent to provide these programs with an additional $701,106 in funding next year, for a total of more than $1.52 million by the end of fiscal 2003-04.  The Medical University developed the online education program in response to the nursing shortage facing South Carolina and the nation as a whole, said Gail  Stuart, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the university’s College of Nursing.  “South Carolina currently ranks 47th in the nation for total number of nurses per 100,000 residents,” said Stuart. “Moreover, about two-thirds of the state’s registered nurses have a two-year rather than a four-year degree. These nurses need more advanced training in order to care for patients in critical-care environments.”  This shortage is especially troublesome in South Carolina because the state is seeing such rapid growth among its senior citizen population, which generally has a greater need for nursing care.  Stuart said that poor access to nursing education is partly to blame for the shortage.  “Many of our potential students are already employed and have family and financial responsibilities that occupy their daytime hours and keep them close to home,” she said. “Several also live in rural communities and simply can’t make the commute into Charleston to attend class.”  An Internet-based curriculum makes these factors less of an obstacle to earning a nursing degree, said Stuart.  “Online learning can take place anytime, anywhere, as long as the student has access to a computer and the Internet,” she said.  Beginning in fall 2003, the college will offer an online curriculum that will enable  registered nurses to earn their four-year bachelor’s degrees without leaving their current nursing positions.  In 2004, the college plans to introduce other online classes that will allow working nurses to pursue their master’s degrees in preparation for careers in nursing administration and nursing education—fields that also have seen serious declines in their ranks.  In addition, the college also plans to offer its continuing-education programs online to help existing nurses to continually sharpen and update their patient care skills.  With the online nursing program, The Duke Endowment’s gifts will enable the Medical University to sustain four existing programs that were begun last year with endowment assistance. These programs were designed to help serve low-income and otherwise medically under-served populations throughout South Carolina.  One of the programs promotes maternity and newborn care in rural communities; another creates hypertension specialists in communities throughout the state; a third works to improve dental health among low-income and minority children; and the fourth enables health care professionals in remote locations to participate in continuing-education programs.  Medical University President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., said that while The Duke Endowment has long served as a valued private-sector partner to the university, three consecutive years of state budget cuts have made its support even more important to the school’s ability to perform its primary health care mission.  “Our role as a public teaching hospital requires that we monitor and respond to health care needs in the community.  It  is a vital process that is not supported through traditional health care reimbursement,” said Greenberg.  “That is why philanthropic investments such as these are so important—because they lead to new programs that continually raise the standard of public health in South Carolina.  We’re tremendously grateful for The Duke Endowment’s confidence in the Medical University.”  Established in 1924 by N.C. industrialist and philanthropist James B. Duke, The Duke Endowment is one of the nation’s largest private foundations.  Its mission is to serve the people of North Carolina and South Carolina by supporting selected program of higher education, health  care, children’s welfare and spiritual life. Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.