School of Nursing Centennial Commemorated with New Scholarship

by Julia Vasquez

One million. It’s a difficult number to grasp—more than our finite brains can imagine. One million days is over 2,739 years. One million miles equates to over 40 trips around the earth. One million pounds is roughly the same weight as 83 elephants. That’s heavy! One million is the number of nurses our country is predicted to lack by 2030.

Melondie R. Carter, Ralph W. Beeson dean and professor, already feels this burden. “We have never had the nursing shortage that we have. Currently in Birmingham we’re 1,000 short of registered nurses.”

During World War I the United States experienced its first serious shortage of trained nurses. To help meet the need, Birmingham Baptist Hospital School of Nursing was founded in 1922. It was renamed Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing in 1968 and moved to Samford University in 1973. The contributions of former dean Dr. Nena Sanders were recognized in 2020, when the school was