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UST Appoints Director of Nursing Program Development
4/29/2009
 University of St. Thomas Houston announces the appointment of Dr. Poldi Tschirch as the Director of Nursing Program Development.
Tschirch will assist the University in re-establishing the School of Nursing on campus. In 2008, University of St. Thomas began its initial planning phase to reopen the School of Nursing to address the growing shortage of nurses nationwide.
Dr. Tschirch comes to the University of St. Thomas from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where she has held leadership roles in the School of Nursing, The Telehealth Center and, most recently, as Director of Nursing Informatics.
Hiring Tschirch as director was part of the University’s first phase of the three-phase startup that includes plans to raise $20 million to build and endow the School, prepare for accreditation and begin faculty and student recruitment. The University closed its former nursing program in 1986. In phases two and three, the University plans to enroll the first class of nursing students, and hopes to dedicate a permanent nursing facility on campus.
"I am deeply honored to have been chosen as the Director for Nursing Program Development for the University of St. Thomas, said Tschirch. “I believe that University leaders have made a wise choice in electing to re-open the nursing program at this time. The current nursing shortage, both nationally and in Texas, is expected to increase significantly by 2020 unless the capacity of the nursing education system to produce the graduates needed for the nursing workforce is increased.
“The University of St. Thomas is in an ideal position to help address this problem. The University provides many advantages - its fine reputation, the quality of its original nursing program, the support of its outstanding and loyal nursing alumni, excellent faculty and visionary leadership. The program has received enthusiastic support from hospital and nursing leaders in the Texas Medical Center and will be welcomed by the health professions community,” said Tschirch.
Tschirch earned a B.S.N. from Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island in 1974, a M.S.N. from the University of Texas School of Nursing in Galveston in 1983 and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1992.
“St. Thomas has the potential to educate nurses with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees who appreciate and live the values of our Catholic, Basilian institution,” said UST President Dr. Robert Ivany. “We are confident that our graduates will benefit from a strong liberal arts education and from a time honored legacy of genuine caring for the patients.”
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