McALLEN — At a time when nursing staff are hard to find, Hidalgo County pledged $2 million to South Texas College in an effort to increase enrollment in the school’s nursing program.
Gathered at the STC Nursing and Allied Health campus, county and school officials celebrated the $2 million the county gave the college to pay for the salaries of nursing instructors at the school. The aim is to encourage enrollment and double the number of nurses graduating from the college.
In December, 463 prospective nurses graduated from the school, according to STC President Ricardo Solis.
“We are the largest nursing providers amongst community colleges in the entire state of Texas,” Solis said, adding that their new goal was to become the number one provider of nurses, among colleges and universities, in the entire state.
“We will become known as the provider, developer of the largest (number of) nurses throughout the state of Texas,” Solis said. “That is an achievement that we are all going to be very proud of.”
Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said the funds will build the essential human capital in the Rio Grande Valley.
Citing data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, the county projected that the demand for registered nurses will outpace supply in 2032, 30.5% to 38.8%, leaving a deficit of 57,012 nurses statewide.
“Based on these projections, 16.3% of the projected demand for RNs in 2032 will not be met, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services,” the county wrote in a news release.
In the Valley, there were 14,619 employed RNs in 2019, according to DSHS, and that number is expected to grow by 25.9% by 2032. Meanwhile, demand in the Valley is projected to grow by 20.5%.
“The COVID-19 global pandemic really did highlight the deficiencies in our public and private infrastructure to take care for people that were ill, for people that were left homeless or people that were simply struggling with food insecurity,” STC Board President Rose Benavidez said.
“But what it also showed us is that we were absolutely prepared to build that infrastructure because of the strong collaboration that we have between public and private partnerships and also with our state, federal, and local governments.”
She praised the county officials and thanked them for the investment.
“Thank you for believing in our institution,” Benavidez said, “thank you for believing in our students, and thank you for knowing that this is the right place to make an investment that is going to yield the highest dividends that you can ever imagine.”
