UMC of El Paso gifts UTEP School of Nursing and Health Sciences $1.5 million

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- University Medical Center (UMC) of El Paso is gifting $1.5 million to UTEP to allow the university to increase the size of its nursing and occupational therapy programs.

The funds will go toward hiring new faculty at the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. That will allow class sizes to increase for each program and allow for more graduates from each class. UTEP expects the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program to have over 400 graduates per year by 2028. The Doctoral of Occupational Therapy program, meanwhile, is expected to double in size. UTEP says this will help meet the increasing demand for more health care providers. Experts say that West Texas will have a deficit of over 5,000 registered nurses by 2030.

“This gift will promote the health and wellbeing of our community by creating more health care providers for our region,” said UTEP President Heather Wilson. “We’re grateful to UMC El Paso for helping us create even more highly competitive graduates and future health care leaders.”