UTC’s School of Nursing announces significant impact grant from Unum Group

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – University of Tennessee at Chattanooga announced a new partner for their nursing building. The Unum Group is donating $500,000 for the project that will contribute to the mental health program.

“The most important thing i think about with this gift from UNUM is we will be able to ramp up our focus on mental health which is a challenge not only in the medical world, but in the communities at large and especially at UTC’s campus,” said Director of UTC’s nursing program, Chris Smith.

Enrollment will be increased by 150% thanks to this generous grant from Unum. With this being the case, the nursing shortage around the country will drop as UTC plans to produce more nurses.

“What this will afford us to have been some additional training. we will partner with unum and their clinical specialist down there in the mental health field. and that will augment what we are already doing here in the school of nursing…We have two courses; one is a mental health course in undergraduate program and a community health program for our traditional and our accelerated students,” said Smith.

This grant will also give students the ability to have a massive reward, but with little risk.

“With this new building being 90,000 square feet, where 40% is going to be in simulation. We are really excited about that because that affords students and facility to have high stakes, low risk simulations and we can teach these students some critical skills that they need to know before they go out into the world,” said Smith.

UTC’s nursing program has a 100% employment rate after graduation, along with an average pass rate of 97% on the National Council Licensure Exam.