CU Nursing - Spring/Summer 2022 - 11

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COL L EG E
Now, the siblings are taking their
devotion to the Four Corners a step
further by supporting FLC's latest
degree option: a four-year nursing
program in partnership with the
University of Colorado College of
Nursing at Anschutz Medical Campus.
$1 MILLION CHALLENGE
MATCH GRANT SUPPORTS
NURSING PROGRAM
In January 2022, Zink and her
husband Jerry launched the Karen
Zink Family Fund for Nursing
Education Leadership. The Zink's
$1 million challenge match grant
will not only support the hiring of
the CU Nursing Fort Lewis College
Collaborative's leader but will also
help build a comprehensive network
of support to maximize the success
of students through access to scholarships,
mentorships, peer-to-peer
programs, and more. Short and his
wife Jane are supporting the first
student cohort, anticipated to begin
in Fall 2023, with a $30,000 nursing
scholarship fund.
" It's such a worthy thing to participate
in the education and training
of professional nurses, " says Zink, a
healthcare provider with more than
50 years of experience. " For 20-some
years in a row, nurses have been the
number-one trusted professionals in
the country, but we're in a serious
healthcare provider shortage, and,
in particular, a nursing shortage. "
This nationwide nursing shortage
has an even greater impact on rural
communities in the US, drastically
limiting healthcare resources
available to Native Americans, for
instance. According to the National
Sample Survey of Registered Nurses,
only 13,000 American Indian and
Alaska Native nurses serve 2.56
Continued on next page
The Dale Rea
Memorial Clock
Tower at Fort
Lewis College
in Durango
Historic Partnership
THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO COLLEGE OF NURSING AT ANSCHUTZ
MEDICAL CAMPUS PARTNERS WITH FORT LEWIS COLLEGE TO OFFER
AN UNDERGRADUATE NURSING PROGRAM IN DURANGO
F
ort Lewis College (FLC) and the CU College of Nursing at the Anschutz
Medical Campus have announced a new partnership to create a four-year
undergraduate degree in nursing, bringing the state's flagship medical
institute of higher education to the rural and Indigenous-serving campus of
Southwest Colorado.
Ushering in a new model of health and collaboration in higher education, FLC and
CU Nursing are combining hands-on, culturally sensitive, patient-centered healthcare
with the latest trends in medicine, like telehealth, which is an immediate need in rural
communities around Durango.
" We're thrilled to be partnering with the healthcare visionaries at CU Anschutz
to bring this caliber of nursing education to Southwest Colorado, " said Cheryl
Nixon, Fort Lewis College provost and vice president of Academic Affairs. " We
are aligned in our community focused values and this collaboration will leverage
the unique Indigenous perspective and sense of place that FLC brings into all of
our academics. "
" We are honored to forge this partnership with an esteemed school in a
part of the state offering such tremendous opportunity for training the future
healthcare workforce of Colorado, " says Donald M. Elliman, Chancellor of the
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. " By partnering with Fort
Lewis College, we are bringing world-class healthcare education into a highly
respected liberal arts environment, optimizing the best of both environments to
deliver a top-tier nursing education. "
The first cohort of the CU Nursing Fort Lewis College Collaborative is expected
to arrive at the FLC campus in the fall of 2023. The Durango-based program will
fuse FLC's liberal arts [OB1] core with the nursing curriculum at CU Anschutz,
with students building a creative and critical thinking foundation in STEM-focused
general education courses alongside nursing courses uniquely aligned to rural,
Continued on page 13
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