Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
There are so many things that can stall a potentially brilliant nursing career: insufficiency of tuition funds, personal struggles, the financial emergency you never saw coming. This gift addresses all of that. It’s a resource that covers the needs of our students from every angle.
By Micah Mertes
The Bedford Falls Foundation — an organization that supports high-quality nursing education to address the nursing workforce shortage — has committed $1 million through its donor-advised fund to Creighton University’s College of Nursing.
The grant will establish the Joanne and William Conway Nursing Scholarship, which will support 12 students enrolled in Creighton’s accelerated nursing program, provide resources for a dedicated tutoring program and launch the Joanne Barkett Conway Dean’s Emergency Fund, offering timely assistance to students facing hardships that could hinder their academic success.
William Conway, Jr., and his late wife Joanne Barkett Conway established the Bedford Falls Foundation and its related donor-advised fund in 1997. They chose the foundation’s name from the town in the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life, a nod to the good luck the Conways said they experienced in their own lives.
“The Creighton College of Nursing’s mission of caring for the whole person is an important part of preparing nurses for today’s healthcare challenges,” said Bill Conway. “These future nurses will go on to make a difference in the lives of others – we hope to see them serving the communities across Nebraska that need them the most.”
Creighton Nursing Conway Scholars will each receive $25,000. Recipients will include students at the Omaha and Phoenix campuses, enrolled in the traditional one-year accelerated program or the 3+1 pathway, a dual-degree program in which students earn a three-year biology or health sciences degree from a partner institution before completing an accelerated nursing degree at Creighton.
Recipients will be selected based on financial need and academic standing, with preference given to students from or intending to serve federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) or medically underserved communities.
“The country is facing a national nursing shortage, and the problem is especially prominent in certain areas of the country,” said Jessica Clark, DNP, RN, dean of Creighton’s College of Nursing. “Put simply: We need to be educating and graduating more great nurses. We need to remove the barriers to education that lead to the barriers in healthcare.”
Multiple factors are contributing to a national nursing shortage, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), including low enrollment in nursing colleges, high turnover, more than 1 million nurses projected to retire by 2030, and an aging population that is increasing demand for care.
“With the Beford Falls Foundation’s gift,” Clark said, “we will send another dozen excellent Creighton nurses, as soon as possible, to the patients who need them most.”
The foundation’s gift will also support a College of Nursing tutoring program for high-need nursing courses and foundational gateways, including human pathophysiology and pharmacology. The team of tutors closely monitors academic risk factors, helping ensure a higher graduation success rate.
The Joanne Barkett Conway Dean’s Emergency Fund will provide critical assistance to students facing financial challenges that could jeopardize their ability to complete the program and their future as nurses.
“I’m truly excited about how holistic the foundation’s gift is,” Clark said. “There are so many things that can stall a potentially brilliant nursing career: insufficiency of tuition funds, personal struggles, the financial emergency you never saw coming. This gift addresses all of that. It’s a resource that covers the needs of our students from every angle.
“We are so grateful for the Bedford Falls Foundation’s partnership with Creighton and the countless ways they support nursing education and care across the nation.”
