More than 6 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and the numbers are growing. Massive financial and emotional burdens are expected to reach new heights in the coming years. On average, care for people living with dementia exceeds insurance reimbursement by $500 to $1,000 per year, per patient. Philanthropic support through 2O36 is key for Integrated Memory Care and will allow Emory School of Nursing to expand this model across the United States, improving care and quality of life for millions of families.

A partnership of Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Department of Neurology, and Department of Psychiatry, Integrated Memory Care (IMC) is a nurse-led medical home that addresses both the primary care needs and unique challenges that dementia patients and their care partners face. It is the only nurse-led center of its kind, treating each patient’s dementia and other chronic conditions using a palliative care framework and engaging the care partner as a key member of the care team. This celebrated clinic has been honored for six continuous years as a Patient-Centered Medical Home, recognized as an Age-Friendly Health System by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and chosen as a Best Practice exemplar by the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care.

Scholarships open the world to students. For working nurses pursuing advanced degrees. For those future-proofing their careers by grounding in data science. And for those traditionally underrepresented in nursing.

The average debt burden for a student graduating with a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) is close to $60,000. Depending on the area of study, our master of science in nursing (MSN) graduates typically carry $60,000 to $95,000 in debt. These substantial costs keep many new nurses from pursuing rewarding career opportunities. We want to change that.

With your generous support of 2O36, the School of Nursing can establish an endowed scholarship fund to ensure student financial assistance in perpetuity, making a nursing education at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels more accessible. That access strengthens and diversifies the field of nursing, health care overall, and Emory’s standing as a leading educational institution.

Having doubled in size in the last decade and now ranked No. 2 in graduate nursing schools by U.S. News World and Report, the School of Nursing is a beacon for health care educators and students alike. Despite this significant growth in size and research excellence, endowed professorships for the school have not been funded in more than two decades.

Through the support of caring donors, we can endow two new distinguished professorships. With this sustainable funding, the School of Nursing can continue to attract talented researchers and teachers, achieve top rankings, and strengthen our academic curriculum across pediatrics, caregiving, elder care, cancer nursing, public health nursing, and social determinants of health.

To lead innovations in care and advance their careers, nursing faculty need the freedom to focus on their development as scholars, educators, and clinicians. Establishing a faculty recruitment pipeline will enable Emory to attract teachers and researchers emerging as leaders in nursing simulation and digital learning as technologies advance.

A faculty recruitment pipeline for the School of Nursing wouldn’t just focus on established educators, it would support postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups and strong clinicians in transitioning to academic roles. Bringing new talents and fresh perspectives into our nursing program will further strengthen Emory’s curriculum and better prepare our students for emerging priorities and trends in the field of nursing. And the ripple effect will strengthen our surrounding community and health care at large.

Through simulation-based training, students learn to manage rapidly changing situations in real time. By putting them into complex simulated situations, they learn critical thinking and how to communicate effectively with patients, their loved ones, and health care teams. It’s a unique opportunity to practice and master clinical skills, techniques, and procedures while enhancing patient safety. The repetition of these real-world scenarios allows students to strengthen their skills in a safe, controlled environment without risk to actual patients. That translates into better patient outcomes in the real world.

Your support for 2O36 will expand access to simulation-based learning for nursing, interprofessional, and transdisciplinary education and collaborative practice. This intentional integration of education, research, and clinical care in an academic setting will advance the science and shape the structure and quality of health care.

Unexpected challenges are the norm in health care, medical research, and education. Funds for the School of Nursing that aren’t earmarked for specific programs allow us to respond to changing demands. The Nursing Fund for Excellence provides this flexibility. Directed by the dean, this fund is the key to sustaining a nimble, top-ranked institution that provides the highest quality education.

Gifts to the Fund for Excellence enable us to focus on shifting priorities and areas of greatest need. In the past, this has meant seeding new projects and programs, attracting high-caliber faculty, and initiating new research areas for the School of Nursing. The fund’s inherent flexibility allows Emory to remain at the forefront in health care education and innovation.

America’s complex, changing health care environment requires the highest level of scientific knowledge and practical expertise. Emory’s two doctoral degree tracks—doctor of nursing practice (DNP) and doctor of philosophy (PhD) in nursing—prepare nurse scientists and clinical leaders.

Students in our nursing doctoral program typically carry a debt burden of nearly $155,000, and scholarship opportunities for graduate-level students are traditionally limited compared to those for undergraduates. Your generosity allows us to establish scholarships and grants for students pursuing DNP and PhD degrees. Doctoral-level nursing education becomes more accessible, and tomorrow’s expert researchers and practitioners are prepared to spearhead improvements in patient care and health care policy across the nursing sciences.