"The first grant helped us change the way nurses are educated and attract many people to the profession who otherwise might not have brought their talent and compassion to nursing," says Patricia Chiverton, dean of the school. "The nursing shortage is about quantity and quality. The grant renewal will enable us to continue to address both issues."
Since 2002, the school has awarded Fuld scholarships to 130 people in the accelerated bachelor's and master's degree programs. Another 30 have been selected for the upcoming year. Those are significant numbers considering students have identified scholarship support as the single most important factor in their ability to seek an accelerated nursing degree.
"Before pursuing nursing, I spent 12 years in marketing," says Helene Menchel '04, a registered nurse who, after graduation, joined Strong Memorial Hospital's Medical Oncology Unit. "With the generous support of the Fuld Trust, I could transition out of my executive role in a marketing firm and jump into nursing head first, earning a second bachelor's degree in one year. Without Fuld, I would still be in night school part-time, trying to crawl into nursing over a five-year period. I had little confidence that such a long transition would come to fruition."
With the grant renewal, the school hopes to increase enrollment in the accelerated program by about 50 percent over the next five years and to offer scholarship support to those in master's and doctoral programs as a way to address the need for more highly educated nurse leaders who can serve in clinical and academic settings.
The funding also will support efforts to redesign programs and solidify faculty recruitment, improving the student-teacher ratio and the clinical experience for students. Initiatives also are under way to develop new courses, including, for example,
integrative approaches to patient safety and health care quality improvement.
"We must develop programs that celebrate and expand nursing's role as an equal partner in the health care system," Chiverton adds. "We must empower nurses to create and implement quality improvements at the bedside."
Maintained by Office of Communications
Trust awards nursing $2.5 million
he School of Nursing's effort to attract more talented people to the profession has received a significant endorsement with the renewal of a major grant by a national foundation. The Helene Fuld Health Trust has awarded the school $2.5 million to support scholarships and the development of new programs. This grant combined with a 2002 grant of $2.2 million makes these the largest gifts from foundations to the school in almost 25 years.
Please send your comments and suggestions to:
Office of Communications.
