Nursing Fund, a fund created under the auspices of the Vehbi Koç Foundation (VKV) on December 15, 1974 with a provisory donation of five million Turkish lira from Vehbi Koç. The fund’s purpose is to identify problems in nursing in Turkey and support the generation of viable and lasting solutions. In his letter to the VKV Board of Directors on December 3, 1974, Vehbi Koç explained the intentions behind the fund: “The five million lira donation I’m making is to enable the foundation to contribute to the national training of our nurses, so they can be knowledgeable, bound to their duty and possess the material and moral requisites of their vocation.” A Nursing Committee, under the chairmanship of Semahat Arsel, was founded to manage the fund. It was composed of representatives of the Ministry of Health, the heads of nursing academies and representatives of the Turkish Nurses Association.
The following books, published with the proceeds of this fund, are used as core text books in nursing schools: Hemşireliğin Temel İlkeleri (The Fundamental Principles of Nursing), Hemşirelikte Ana Psikiyatrik Kavramlar (Key Psychiatric Concepts in Nursing), Hemşirelik Teknikleri El Kitabı (A Handbook to Nursing Techniques), Hemşire Hasta İlişkilerinde Kişiler Arası Süreçler (Interpersonal Procedures in Nurse-Patient Relations) and İç Hastalıkları Hemşireliği (Internal Medicine and Nursing). Every year since 1990, two nurses have been sent to Houston Methodist Hospital in the USA to be educated in intensive care nursing. From 1990 to 1992, courses in intensive care were organized with nurses working in intensive care units in a number of hospitals. On November 28-30, 1990, the “Views on Nursing Symposium” was held in Abant and attended by members of the Ministry of Health. At the time of writing, over 40 nursing research projects have been supported and more than 2,000 scholarships have been awarded to nursing students.
Today, the educational and vocational initiatives supported by the Nursing Fund are largely managed through SANERC (Semahat Arsel Nursing Education and Research Center, founded in 1992), and Koç University School of Nursing, founded in 1999. The Nursing Fund has supported special vocational development projects led by nurses since 2003 as part of the “Vehbi Koç Foundation Nursing Fund Support Program”.