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Learning Objective 1: Discuss the potential and pitfalls of forming a partnership with a community agency
Learning Objective 2: Discuss issues related to funding and building development for nursing education
Methods: A Memorandum of Agreement was created to outline a new level of partnership between the Hospital and WKU. This MOA was approved by the Hospital Board and the WKU Board of Regents. A creative funding model built on the Responsibility-Centered Budgeting model was approved by the university provost to fund the project.
Results: The community partner provided land, architect fees and issued a bond to build the facility. WKU agreed to lease for 80% of the building, which was designed with input from WKU nursing. This method allowed us to obtain a new facility for program expansion faster than obtaining state funding. The university has agreed that all student tuition money from new program expansion (increased enrollment over our baseline numbers) will be placed in an account and used to pay for the lease and for new faculty and staff lines needed to support the program growth. We have hired 8 additional nursing faculty members and two staff members. We have doubled the size of our BSN program from 40 to 80 students each semester, increased our RN-BSN program from 30 to 50 students each semester, and started the new DNP program with 20 students each fall. We have obtained needed salary enhancement for existing faculty lines and for the new faculty lines.
Conclusion: This model has thus far been a win-win solution for both WKU and our community partner hospital. Financial projections predict that this model will generate a significant profit by 2020. Profit from the program will be used to enhance nursing faculty salaries and maintain program equipment and to pay a university support fee of to 30% of the income from this model.
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