Jenny Nowatzke

The next time you step inside a hospital room, graduates of Methodist College's nursing program may be the people taking care of you and your family.

And without the student's nursing instructors, like Echo Koehler, they wouldn't learn how to do their job right.

"I've been a nurse for six years, I always enjoyed the teaching aspect of nursing," said Koehler.

But over the past few years, the number of nurse educators has declined.

"They haven't had nurse educator tracks for many years. Probably back in the 1980's is when most educational institutions didn't have that anymore," said Linda Foley, Director of the Masters program at the school.

"What's happening to nurse education is what's happening to the entire population - they are aging. As they move out, we need more younger educators in the pipeline," said Marilyn Valerio, Methodist's Assistant Dean of Nursing.

Now, thanks to $60,000 in federal stimulus money, more nurses at Methodist will get some extra financial help to enroll in the Nurse Educator Graduate Program, which costs about $20,000 to complete.  Methodist is the only college in the state of Nebraska to receive the funds.

"Right now is the perfect time to go into nursing education because of the funds that are available," said Koehler.

"The terminal degree in nursing education is the doctorate. That takes time, energy, and money - so anything we can do to assist will be beneficial," said Valerio.

Beneficial not just for the students future, but for their future patients as well.