The University of Connecticut School of Nursing in Storrs has announced that Elisabeth DeLuca, a 1969 graduate of the program, recently made a gift of $40 million to the college that should position the nursing school to be a leader in combating the state and national shortage of nurses.
In addition, DeLuca's gift — the largest in the university's history for any purpose — also will support the construction of a new ultramodern facility for the nursing program, UConn Today reported earlier in October.
The endowment will provide scholarships and programmatic support for a dynamic nursing education that includes patient-centered practice, interdisciplinary research and technology-based innovations.
The combination of private and public support will make this effort possible as Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly are united in UConn's vision to address the critical nursing shortage.
At its June 28 meeting, the UConn Board of Trustees approved the start of planning for the new building, which is supported by $30 million in bond authorizations approved by the General Assembly, with the backing of Lamont, during the 2023 legislative session.
The state bond commission voted Oct. 6 to allocate the bond funds to the university. DeLuca's gift provides additional funds that are key to the project.
"Here in Connecticut, we strongly value those who enter the nursing profession, and we want to do everything we can to support them as they fulfill their necessary educational requirements," Lamont said in a statement.
"By constructing a new, state-of-the-art building for the UConn School of Nursing, we are not only creating a place that can provide nursing students with the latest tools that will serve them well throughout their careers, but we are also showing anyone who may be considering entering this selfless field just how much of a priority nursing is to our state while also taking steps necessary to combat nursing shortages," he added.
The new facility will feature flexible spaces to allow for different setups for various learning modalities and lecture halls to accommodate large gatherings, according to UConn Today, and will maximize space for student learning through simulations, training, lectures and studying.
The building's proposed location on Alethia Drive in Storrs is ideal based on its proximity to several complementary facilities and complexes, like UConn's functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine in the Brain Imaging Resource Center building, the Communication Sciences Building, the Wellness Community student housing in nearby West Complex, and the UConn Health Nayden Rehabilitation Clinic in the Human Development Center, among other sites.
The School of Nursing will continue to have a presence in Storrs Hall at least until the new building opens.
As part of the planning process, preliminary site and civil engineering examinations will be conducted, followed by the design process. Construction is anticipated to begin in fall 2024 and finish in time for the start of the 2026-27 academic year.
A Woman Dedicated to Her Profession
After graduating from UConn, DeLuca worked at Bridgeport Hospital and was promoted to Head Nurse of Intensive Services. She then joined her husband in running his business. She currently serves as president of the Elisabeth C. DeLuca Foundation and the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation.
She hopes that her gift inspires others to invest in nursing education, UConn Today noted. She is a longtime donor to the university, providing support that includes the DeLuca Visiting Professor for Innovation and New Knowledge Fund and the Adomat Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at the School of Nursing.
"When Elisabeth sees a need at her alma mater, she steps forward," explained UConn President Radenka Maric. "Elisabeth supported students in need with scholarships and attended a ‘Shark Tank'-like competition at UConn. She is all about creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship for nursing students, and she wants them to interact with engineering and pharmacy students and challenge each team to come up with an innovative product or method to improve nursing and then pitch it to the audience."
After graduating from UConn, she worked at Bridgeport Hospital and was promoted to Head Nurse of Intensive Services. She then joined her husband in running his business. She currently serves as president of the Elisabeth C. DeLuca Foundation and the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation.
Addressing the Nursing Shortage
The United States is experiencing a significant nursing shortage, which is projected to continue through 2030, UConn Today noted. The human costs of the shortage can be deadly, and adequate staffing and college-educated nurses are strongly associated with safer patient care.
The profile of UConn's School of Nursing continues to rise, including a continuing increase in highly-qualified applicants seeking to enroll in its degree programs — almost 2,900 in 2023, an increase of more than 300 over the prior year. The capacity to enroll more of these qualified applicants was limited by faculty, staff and space considerations.
DeLuca's gift sets up UConn to hire more nursing faculty and staff, and a new building will accommodate more students, allowing the university to increase enrollment from approximately 175 to a minimum of 250 students. The scholarship support provided by her gift will ensure talented students can access a UConn education and complete their nursing degree, regardless of their economic status.
The school's online nursing master's program was listed at No. 18 nationwide in the 2023 U.S. News & World Report annual rankings, and its clinical faculty garnered more than $4 million in external research funding in fiscal year 2022.
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