STC nonprofit finds funding support from hospital system to bolster medical resources

South Texas Health System has donated over $30,000 to South Texas College’s nonprofit arm to support “new initiatives” in their healthcare curricula, all part of a continuing partnership between the two institutions in efforts to grow resources and staff in the Rio Grande Valley medical community.

The donation, which was present to STC on Monday, will help fund new allied health curricula as well as the Adult Promise program.

For Kennetha Foster, system chief nursing officer at STHS, the $37,000 donation is an investment in the future of healthcare.

“South Texas Health System is proud to contribute to South Texas College’s mission,” Foster said in a news release. “As a hospital system, we employ hundreds of South Texas College nursing program graduates because the college does an amazing job at producing highly trained and highly skilled graduates who instantly become valuable members of the healthcare workforce across the Rio Grande Valley.”

Over the last two years STHS has donated about $89,000 to STC through the college’s foundation, which is dedicated to helping Valley students pursuing a healthcare career achieve their goals and develop workforce skills.

“We’ve seen firsthand the quality of the college’s graduates, and we’re committed to supporting our local students in their high education endeavors,” Foster said. “We want to continue the longstanding partnership with STC to help ensure access to higher education for all students.”

Hospital systems in the Valley have previously acknowledged a shortage of medical professionals, namely nurses and doctors, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although local hospitals have been seeing gaps being filled since that time, there remains a national shortage that appears to be going nowhere.

According to a November 2022 report from the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, Nationally, there is a projected shortage of 78,610 full-time registered nurses for the upcoming 2025 year.

While the center does not include Texas in its list of the 10 states most affected, the Texas Department of State Health Services, also in 2022, reported a state-wide physician shortage expected to worsen through 2032.

The Texas DSHS says in the same report, released in May 2022, that 49.4% of Texas medical school graduates remained in Texas for their graduate medical education from 2000 to 2019. Schools like STC have helped offset that trend locally by being among the highest-producing schools for medical professionals.

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