The School of Nursing is pleased to announce that it has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Careers in Nursing program. The School is one of 52 institutions selected for this competitive funding and the grant of $50,000 will be used to support scholarships for newly-admitted students in the Accelerated 2nd Degree BSN Program over the 2014-15 academic year. This degree program enables students or recent graduates from non-nursing degree programs to earn the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree within three consecutive terms. At completion, graduates will be eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) to become Registered Nurses.
The New Careers in Nursing Scholarship program is designed to help alleviate the nursing shortage and increase the diversity of nursing professionals. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation advocates that accelerated baccalaureate and master’s nursing programs are particularly efficient and effective in addressing this shortage as they put more nurses into practice quickly and into clinical teaching positions more expeditiously. Successful applicants had to incorporate recruitment and retention strategies to support accepted students from underrepresented groups in nursing in order to reinforce the workforce’s ability to provide culturally competent patient care.
The School of Nursing is pleased to have been selected for funding by the New Careers in Nursing program, which is an initiative of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Michael Beach, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the 2nd Degree Accelerated BSN program, will serve as project director for this grant. For more information about the School’s Accelerated 2nd Degree BSN Program, please visit this site.