by: Jacquelyn M. Spruce
The School of Nursing received a prestigious grant award from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) to assist in increasing the number of nurses prepared as experts in providing health care to older adults. With funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation of New York, grant monies will be used to provide scholarships for new graduate students pursuing careers as geriatric advanced practice nurses. The $42,000 grant is required to be matched by the nursing school, making $84,000 in scholarship money available to new graduate students.
As the nursing workforce ages, more nurses are leaving the profession, creating an adverse affect on the already severe nursing shortage. Robin D. Froman, dean of the nursing school, said the AACN grant will help support increased enrollments in the area of geriatric nursing, one of the fastest growing need areas for nursing.
“There is a very severe nursing shortage in all of Texas,” Froman said. “In San Antonio, the most recent estimate is that nursing, as a professional occupation, will have more jobs added by 2010 than any other profession in the city.”
Colleen Keller, Ph.D., R.N., applied for the AACN grant and is pleased to see the results. She said the nursing school is in the process of deciding the criteria students must meet in order to receive a scholarship that will pay for tuition, books and laptops. Scholarship recipients will also benefit from strong mentors, role models and networking.
“This helps to put the nursing school at Health Science Center in San Antonio on the map,” Dr. Keller said. “We received this award with several other top-notch nursing institutions and that shows our success.”
The Hartford Foundation, which provided the funding for the AACN “Creating Careers in Geriatric Advanced Practice Nursing Project,” is a private philanthropy established in 1929 by John A. Hartford. Since 1995 the Foundation has focused extensively on enhancing the nation’s capacity to provide effective and affordable care to its adult population.
