OMAHA — A financial gift from a Creighton University nursing alumna aims to provide 25 other nurses full scholarships to gain a higher degree and experience in healthcare-deprived communities across the globe.

With the donation from Kathy Keough Soto and her family, Omaha-based Creighton is launching the Soto Nursing Scholars program within its College of Nursing.

Recipients must have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and at least a year of work experience. The scholarship program will fund faculty support and allow each nurse over a three-year period to earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and a certificate in global health at Creighton.

It provides opportunities to travel and to work with patients at international partner sites.

Keough Soto said her own journey showed her that Creighton leaves nursing students with an extra something. “Creighton teaches nurses how to be empathetic and really get to know their patients so they can provide the best care for them. This scholarship will do that for more Creighton students,” she said.

The gift should empower students to work toward greater health equity and provide a deeper understanding of disparate access to health care across the globe, said Jessica Clark, dean of the College of Nursing.

“This program speaks to the heart of our mission,” she said. “By working directly with patients and populations all over the world, Soto Scholars will gain experiences, skills and values they will carry with them for the rest of their careers, caring for the whole person wherever they practice.”

The new scholarship — via Keough (Class of 1975), her family and the Donald and Marilyn Keough Foundation — is modeled after and will join Creighton’s existing Arrupe Global Scholars and Partnerships program, which was established in 2021 with a $25 million gift from an anonymous foundation.

The Arrupe program (named after social justice champion Pedro Arrupe) immerses Creighton University School of Medicine students in global communities to work alongside local health care providers and organizations at partner sites in the Dominican Republic, Rwanda, Ecuador and Nepal.

Arrupe scholars engage in a five-year program that includes multiple immersions at their chosen partner sites and an innovative curriculum rooted in health equity and decolonizing global health.

Jason Beste, executive director of the Arrupe program, said the Soto and Arrupe scholars will explore innovative ways to learn and work together and in the field with international partners.

He said scholars learn how to work in cultures different from their own, which often have fewer resources, and how to build trusting partnerships and skills that benefit others they go on to care for.

“If we want to work toward eradicating health injustice, this level of collaborative care is essential,” he said.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/creighton-alumna-creates-fund-for-nu...