“This is a terrific demonstration of partnership across Guam and the whole region,” said UOG President Thomas W. Krise during a virtual donation ceremony on Dec. 23. “We’re very proud of our students who are busy working in their rotations and serving on the frontline of this pandemic, so it’s a real occasion for pride for me and the whole Triton community.”

Rose Grino, healthcare delivery administrator for FHP Health Center, which is part of TakeCare, said the pandemic has placed a spotlight on the need for nurses.

“And UOG has stepped up to respond,” she said. “In graduating [UOG’s nursing] Class of 2020 early … those 26 students are out there in the hospitals and different health care settings being frontliners.”

The School of Health uses the TakeCare donation to fund the clinical portion of a students’ nursing degree and capacity building in the nursing program by providing scholarships for faculty to obtain their doctorates. This year, it also funded an online review for students prior to taking the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX. The review has contributed to UOG having a 100% NCLEX pass rate four years in a row.

“If we didn’t have the TakeCare funding, I don’t know if we could have been this successful with our graduates,” said Margaret Hattori-Uchima, dean of the School of Health and a former scholar of the TakeCare donation. “It has relieved the burden — to know that we have the TakeCare resources to get our clinicals done, and it provides the students comfort in knowing that we’ve got a revenue source for NCLEX review resources in a time we can’t offer that face to face.”