School of Nursing Receives Endowed Chair to Improve Rural Health Care

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Nursing at the Permian Basin recently received a generous gift from the James A. “Buddy” Davidson Charitable Foundation to establish an Endowed Chair in Evidence-Based Practice with an emphasis in rural health. The chair will investigate ways to incorporate scientific nursing data to deliver innovative patient care and implement improved health disparities research and programs throughout rural West Texas.

“The James A. “Buddy” Davidson Charitable Foundation’s continued partnership with the School of Nursing makes it possible for us to combine the resources needed to improve research and health care for rural West Texas residents,” said TTUHSC President Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D.

TTUHSC’s 131,000-square-mile service area, with a population of 2.7 million, remains one of the country’s most medically underserved. School of Nursing Dean Michael L. Evans, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, said endowments allow the school to recruit exceptional faculty and generate research funds critical to producing qualified nurses to meet America’s rising health services demand.

“We have made progress in providing high-quality education to students and health care professionals, but there is more work to be done,” Evans said. “There is still an extreme shortage of nurses and other health care providers. We are poised to address this need, and this gift will help us fill the gaps in the U.S. nursing workforce.”

The new endowed chair will be housed at The Center of Excellence in Evidence-Based Practice, a collaborative initiative of the School of Nursing and Medical Center Hospital. The center’s mission is to improve the care and safety of patients through research, education, practice and adoption of best practices.

The James A. “Buddy” Davidson Charitable Foundation has supported School of Nursing scholarships for Lubbock and the Permian Basin, as well as The F. Marie Hall SimLife Center and programs in the schools of allied health sciences and pharmacy.

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