UT Tyler Awarded THECB Grant
February 22, 2023
UT Tyler Awarded THECB Grant
Office of Marketing and Communications
Follow @UTTyler TweetFebruary 22, 2023
Liz Wingfield
Health Affairs Marketing and Communications Specialist
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.877.7075
The University of Texas at Tyler was awarded $298,670 from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to fund the Specialized Preceptors Innovate Nursing Education project.
The project, led by Dr. Jenifer Chilton, PhD, RN, associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor, coordinates efforts between UT Tyler School of Nursing and Memorial Hermann Hospital to hire nurses within the system as part time faculty. Nursing students will have the opportunity to attend clinicals in Houston at Memorial Hermann Katy or Cypress location with the new Memorial Hermann faculty members. UT Tyler will also provide training for new part time faculty and all preceptors within the units.
“I am grateful to everyone who helped make achieving this grant possible. We couldn’t have accomplished this without our dedicated faculty, staff, and our partners at Memorial Hermann,” said Dr. Barbara Haas, PhD, RN, School of Nursing dean. “Now more than ever, it’s crucial that we invest in the next generation of nurses.”
According to a 2017 study by Dr. Di Fang and Dr. Karen Kesten, one-third of the nursing educator workforce is expected to retire by 2025, while the need for professional nurses is still increasing. This project will hopefully help offset the predicted shortage of nurse educators in the industry.
“I’m excited to see the impact this grant will have on both the School of Nursing and East Texas,” said Chilton. “This funding will enable us to recruit and train quality nursing educator candidates and increase the availability of nurses throughout the region.”
Chilton joined the UT Tyler School of Nursing in 2007. She previously served as the Nursing PhD Program Director for UT Tyler. She holds a Master of Science in Nursing and a PhD in Nursing from UT Tyler. She has multiple publications and presentations at professional conferences related to wellness and nursing education.
With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 80 undergraduate and graduate programs to 10,000 students. UT Tyler recently merged with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (now known as UT Tyler Health Science Center). Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center (HSC) and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.