Byline: CLAIRE HUGHES Staff writer
The Sage Colleges, Northeast Health and Bellevue Woman's Hospital -- with a nudge and a promise from Morris ``Marty'' Silverman -- are working on a prescription to counteract a key shortage in health care.
On Monday, they announced plans for the International Center for Nursing at University Heights. Its goals include increasing nursing school enrollment and filling vacant nursing jobs in the Capital Region.
``The whole world knows there is a shortage of nurses, and the whole world is talking about it. We will do something about it,'' said Silverman, a Troy native and Albany Law School graduate who lives in New York City.
The center will start with a director and a few staffers, Sage Colleges President Jeanne Neff told a news conference at the Crowne Plaza. Plans call for reaching out to primary and secondary schools and publicizing the value of nursing careers. Grants would ensure that all qualified applicants could attend nursing programs at Sage and Northeast Health, which has nursing schools at Albany Memorial and Samaritan hospitals. Longer-term goals include an international exchange with nursing educators.
No site has been selected for the nursing center, and no funding has been committed.
But Silverman vowed to make the center a reality as part of his vision for Albany as a hub of medical care and research. He said he expected to announce the location by September. ``We will make it happen, and the monies will become available,'' he said.
The 90-year-old philanthropist, who made his fortune in real estate, has been the guiding force behind Albany's University Heights project, where a $60 million biotechnology research center is expected to open this year, and he created the annual $500,000 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research.
He reiterated his vision, expressed in September, to place the nursing center at the Stratton Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Silverman said the VA hospital is ideal because it is close to Albany Medical Center and the colleges along New Scotland Avenue, which comprise the University Heights Association.
But a Stratton VA spokeswoman said that is unlikely even though the hospital has fewer inpatients than in previous years. With outpatient offices and medical equipment taking up the slack, ``We unfortunately do not have the space they need at this time,'' said Linda Blumenstock.
