COLUMBUS, Miss. -- North Mississippi Medical Center has donated $100,000 to help offset costs at Mississippi University for Women’s Tupelo nursing program as an investment in future nurses.

In addition to its donation to The W, NMMC also made donations to Itawamba Community College and Northeast Mississippi Community College. All three schools will receive $100,000 each over two years to fund nursing instructors to help counter the nursing shortage in this region. ICC received an additional $100,000 to benefit its other health-related programs.

“Our challenge is to find qualified employees to deliver high quality, cost-efficient health care,” said Rodger Brown, North Mississippi Health Services vice president of human resources. “We look at these colleges as strategic partners in helping us meet this challenge.

“These donations are one way we can ensure that the people of northeast Mississippi who want to pursue health care careers will continue to have that opportunity.”

NMMC has made similar donations to ICC and NEMCC in the past. MUW was included this year because of its program at the Advanced Education Center in Tupelo that allows diploma and associate degree nurses to further their education and receive a bachelor of science in nursing degree.

“It is especially gratifying when an employer of our graduates shows their support for our program in the way that North Mississippi Medical Center has done,” said Dr. Vagn Hansen, provost and vice president for academic affairs at MUW.

Dr. Sheila Adams, head of MUW’s Division of Nursing agrees, “As the state’s largest private hospital, NMMC continues to demonstrate a commitment to excellence in patient care by their financial gift to MUW’s Nursing Division. We are extremely grateful for their generosity and commitment to meeting the educational needs of Mississippi’s nurses.”

Adams said MUW has a great partnership already in place with NMMC. Both the associate’s and bachelor’s programs on the main campus and the RN-BSN Option on the Tupelo campus use NMMC for clinical experiences for its students, and the Tupelo faculty assist with existing programs at NMMC by teaching CPR and PALS courses to NMMC staff. The Tupelo faculty also serve on committees such as the NMMC Nursing Recruitment and Retention Committee and recently assisted NMMC with a grant proposal.

“We also are looking at additional partnerships between NMMC and the Tupelo nursing faculty such as offering nursing CEUs via the internet to NMMC nursing staff, offering a management elective to NMMC nursing staff and sharing additional learning resource materials for nursing staff training needs.”

In addition to the programs MUW offers at the Advanced Education Center, The W also offers associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs on the main campus. All of these programs are accredited by the National League of Nursing.

For more information about MUW’s nursing programs, please contact the MUW Division of Nursing at (662) 329-7299.

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