Investing in Our Future

Linda Quick, who with her husband, Mark, has endowed a scholarship at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, shares her thoughts on the importance of supporting nursing education.

As Houstonians, we’ve come to appreciate the extraordinary health care offered here – doctors, nurses, dentists, and countless other professionals dedicated to our well-being. We also have the Texas Medical Center (the world’s largest medical center) right at our doorstep.

Our family’s perspective shifted dramatically when we began spending summers in a small rural mountain town out of state. A serious bout of summer flu revealed the stark reality: There was only one doctor in the whole town, and he was on vacation.

Fortunately, a nurse practitioner stepped in and provided immediate care, transforming our understanding of the nursing profession forever. We learned that, like many nursing students, she had worked full-time while she attended school, cared for her children, and also took out student loans.

Later, attending a PARTNERS Luncheon introduced us to the remarkable work being done at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston. The school stands as a beacon of hope in a time when we face a significant and growing nursing shortage. With the average age of a nurse currently at 48 and nearly a quarter of them nearing retirement, Texas is grappling with one of the lowest nurse-to-population ratios in the country. As more nurses retire and our population continues to age, the need to staff doctors’ offices, hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities becomes increasingly urgent.

Consider this: A nurse was one of the first people to cradle you in her arms after birth, and she may also be one of the last to touch you before you die. A nurse has probably seen you at every doctor’s office visit, at every stay in the hospital, even when you were sick or injured at school. Nurses are woven into the very fabric of our lives, yet their contributions often go unrecognized. While doctors frequently leave legacy gifts to their medical schools to provide scholarships for future medical students, nurses seldom have the financial resources to create endowments. Grateful patients often give donations to honor the doctors and hospitals that cared for them, but how often do we see the same generosity extended to nurses?

We have included Cizik School of Nursing in our will and are also making a current contribution to a scholarship endowment now. As part of America’s aging population, we know that our contribution is more than charity – it is an investment in the future. By helping alleviate the nursing shortage now, we are helping ensure that care will be there for all of us later. If every student willing to become a nurse had a scholarship available, the impact would be transformational. I encourage you to join us in taking a step toward making that a reality. The nurse you support now could be the one who comes to your aid later.

For a limited time, UTHealth Houston will provide a 3-to-1 institutional match to new, qualified pledges of $100,000 to $1 million to new or existing endowments for nursing scholarships. Learn more about the UTHealth Houston Trailblazers program, or call the Office of Development at (713) 500-3200.