VITAL SIGNS
VITAL SIGNS
Significant gift will fuel research innovations at SONHS starting today Endowment: Jorie Healthcare Partners
Two big awards will get more students into health workforce within a year New Grants Target Nursing Shortage
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 194,500 openings for registered nurses annually through 2030. In the Sunshine State, that shortage is especially acute, with the Florida Hospital Association expecting a shortfall of 59,100 nurses in the workforce by 2035. In order to counter this gap, SONHS is pursuing new ways to build capacity for its prestigious Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (A.B.S.N.) degree, an intensive three-semester program for students with a four-year undergraduate degree in another eld. Two substantial new grants are helping the school achieve its goal. “These new grants will empower us to address the state’s nursing shortage by increasing our capacity to graduate highly quali ed new nurses into the profession,” says SONHS Dean and Professor Cindy L. Munro. “Moreover, because our A.B.S.N. graduates re ect South Florida’s diversity, these programs will help us increase equity and diversity in the nursing profession while raising standards of care in multicultural service areas. The return on investment—for the students and our community—is high.” LINE Fund A new program pioneered by SONHS and Jackson Health System (JHS), Miami’s nonpro t academic medical system, kicked off this year with a site visit from Dean Munro and other nursing leaders from both institutions. SONHS was one of just seven Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida recognized with a 2023 Florida Department of Education Linking Industry to Nursing Education (LINE) Fund grant, a platform designed to drive innovative educational collaborations addressing the labor shortage.
care by nding savings and improving the patient experience.”
A generous gift from Midwest-based Jorie Healthcare Partners will establish The Jorie Healthcare Partners Biobehavioral Research Laboratory Endowed Fund at the School of Nursing and Health Studies (SONHS). The endowment will fuel research innovations through an enhanced laboratory serving students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty— an investment designed to provide sustainable support for consequential scienti c inquiry in biobehavioral health care. The school’s cutting-edge biobehavioral research laboratory, located in the M. Christine Schwartz Center for Nursing and Health Studies on the Coral Gables campus, will be named The Jorie Healthcare Partners Biobehavioral Research Laboratory. The laboratory includes a cell culture room, microscopy room, and wet laboratory space where investigators test biomarkers, perform cell and bacterial cultures, study phenomena using preclinical models, work with human subjects, and much more. The laboratory is also equipped for conducting blood assays, determining gene expression, genotyping, and measuring telomere length, as well as assessing redox indicators and proteomics. The Jorie Healthcare Partners endowment will provide a stable source of funds to support research activities, personnel, supplies, and equipment for the laboratory, as well as future renovations and current enhancements to an already-planned expansion project to increase the size of the 1,100-square- foot laboratory by 400 square feet. The inclusion of a generous “endowment accelerator” provides immediate access to current-use funds in order to extend work
This endowment and newly enhanced laboratory will become the driving force and nucleus of the SONHS Biobehavioral Technology Core, a key priority of the University of Miami’s Ever Brighter campaign, ultimately leading to novel treatment options, new data to fuel innovations in the science of holistic, patient-centered care, and lasting improvements for public health. Complementing other leading-edge facilities at SONHS, the laboratory will attract top- ight faculty and postdoctoral fellows; facilitate research
taking place in the laboratory without delay. The gift will have an instantly positive impact while the endowment is being ful lled. “This extraordinary gift from Jorie Healthcare Partners will supercharge the capacity of the laboratory and strengthen the research experience for students, postdocs, and faculty
With its $75,000 LINE grant, SONHS teamed with perennial clinical partner JHS to create a Care Partners Dedicated Educational Unit (DEU), an expansion of the existing Care Partners Program, which places SONHS A.B.S.N. students in clinical rotations at JHS. Participating students, called “Care Partners,” will complete intensive, year-long clinical placements on the newly launched DEU, with nurse preceptors ensuring their acclimation to the profession. SONHS and JHS are also helping pay for the initiative, with JHS providing $75,000 in matching funds. Scholarship support is particularly critical for A.B.S.N. students, who often have exhausted nancial aid eligibility with prior degrees; moreover, the program’s compressed timeframe restricts their ability to nance their tuition by working. Since its 2013 inception, the A.B.S.N. program at SONHS has experienced a 70 percent increase in enrollment, according to University of Miami records. This rapid growth has taxed the school’s ability to help students who meet demonstrated nancial need. “The new initiative will increase our enrollment capacity by 16 full-time A.B.S.N. students, each of whom will receive partial scholarships,” says Dr. Nichole Crenshaw, SONHS associate dean for undergraduate nursing
programs and associate professor, who is directing the DEU in conjunction with a clinical faculty coordinator from the hospital. “Participants will be ready to enter the workforce within a year and upon graduation will receive preferential consideration for nursing positions at JHS.” Hearst Scholarships A $250,000 grant from the Hearst Foundations will award $10,000 scholarships to 25 highly quali ed, full-time A.B.S.N. students from SONHS who demonstrate nancial need. Hearst Foundations have long supported various areas at the U. That support includes the 1990 creation of a William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship for 4-year nursing students and a subsequent naming gift for the William Randolph Hearst Operating Room in the School’s Simulation Hospital Advancing Research and Education (S.H.A.R.E.™). “The generosity of the Hearst Foundations will signi cantly expand our ability to provide tuition assistance to an increasingly competitive and talented pool of applicants to our accelerated nursing program,” says Dean Munro. “As seasoned professionals making a career change, these students are driven, highly motivated, and altruistic. The vast majority nd employment quickly, lling nursing positions in South Florida and beyond.”
collaborations with renowned scholars, practitioners, and external partners in industry and academia; and support emergent lines of research in a wide range of critical areas.
“Jorie Healthcare Partners’ tremendous generosity will bene t the lives of countless
families, students, and health care professionals across Florida and the nation,” says Dean Munro. “We will educate the next generation of health care researchers, bridge existing gaps in knowledge, and promote collective wellness.
We also will nd answers to pressing questions about patient health and translate those evidence-based answers into potentially lifesaving care improvements.” Headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, Jorie Healthcare Partners is a health care technology industry leader with innovators and entrepreneurs pioneering work in robotic process automation, data analysis integration, revenue cycle management, business process re-engineering, and holistic practice management.
for decades to come,” says SONHS Dean and Professor Cindy L. Munro. “The endowment ensures that the lab is forever out tted with the equipment and resources to conduct groundbreaking, world-class scienti c research that will drive advances in holistic, patient-centered health care strategies with the potential to generate profound and lasting change.” Sal Lo, Jorie Health Care Partners CEO and co-founder, states, “We are excited to leverage our technology to transform and relieve administrative burden of patient
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