University of Virginia School of Nursing Receives Record-Breaking $20 Million Gift to Support Increased Enrollment

The University of Virginia (UVA) School of Nursing recently received a $20 million record-breaking gift to support the enrollment of more than 1,000 students to join its nursing programs over the next decade.

The gift came from Joanne and Bill Conway and is the largest single gift in the School of Nursing’s history. Bill Conway is the co-founder of The Carlyle Group, a private equity company. This gift is the third from the Conway’s to the UVA School of Nursing and their previous gifts total $15 million, focused on support and expansion of the Clinical Nurse Leader program and establishment of the Clinical Nurse Leader Conway Scholars program.

UVA stated in a press release that the funding will go toward helping to enroll and support more nursing students across two undergraduate pathways: students who transfer into the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program, and practicing registered nurses with two-year degrees seeking the benefits of a bachelor’s degree.

Retention in the School of Nursing is high and the school has traditionally only been able to accept a small percentage of the highly qualified applicants who apply to the BSN program. Thanks to the Conways’ gift, the School of Nursing will be able to accommodate more transfer students and develop and launch an accelerated curriculum allowing these students to complete their BSN in two years instead of three.

UVA will also use the gift to help establish satellite nursing sites in Richmond and Northern Virginia to expand opportunities for nurses throughout the state to pursue a BSN. The school will also expand the Mary Morton Parsons Clinical Simulation Learning Center to nearly double its current size, providing students with access to clinical simulations to learn and practice care skills.