This Request for Proposals from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) with the support and partnership of The John A. Hartford Foundation, is intended to stimulate projects that will develop geriatric curriculum and clinical innovations at the baccalaureate and advanced practice level to improve nursing care to older adults.

Funded projects will demonstrate the development, implementation, and evaluation of geriatric curriculum and clinical experiences that can serve as models of care delivery to older adults. Awards will be provided to up to 20 baccalaureate nursing programs and 10 advanced practice nursing programs. Each award will be for $90,000 over a three-year time period. Year one will be funded at $40,000, year two and three will be funded at $25,000 for each year. The awardees will be required to provide in-kind support equal to the amount of the award in years two and three for a total of $50,000. Programs may use the award monies to accomplish a variety of objectives, which may include:

• redesign of existing gerontology curriculum;
• faculty development in the specialty of gerontology;
• development of innovative clinical experiences;
• development of new leaders in geriatric practice; and
• improved utilization of available resources through the development of collaborative/consortia groups in gerontology.

Awardees will be encouraged to seek both in-kind support and matching funds from an array of community-based sources.

Background

America's older adult population is the fastest growing segment of the population in the United States. There are 25 million Americans over the age of 65 today. Nursing plays an essential role in providing acute and chronic care, health education, and health promotion to these older Americans. Academia and professional nursing organizations have attempted to increase the quality and number of America's foremost primary care giver, the registered professional nurse, for the geriatric population. These efforts, however, have not adequately increased the number of professional nurses prepared to address the dramatically increasing demand for care of older adults.

AACN and The John A. Hartford Foundation are participating in a joint effort to enhance the quality of health care for older Americans. The focus of the grant is to stimulate innovations in geriatric curriculum and clinical experiences so that institutions of higher education and health care systems will increase their capacity to train future nurses in the care of older adults. The expectation is that the work of the awardees will be replicated and improved upon many times over to create a continuously evolving education model to promote quality care for older Americans.

A national advisory committee has been selected to guide and direct AACN in the administration of the grant. Advisory committee members are expert leaders of baccalaureate and graduate geriatric nursing education programs.

• Institutional applicants must have a grant proposal that describes an innovative action plan that:
• improves the skill and knowledge of the nurse providing care to older adults;
• reflects the national benchmarks of geriatric care;
• is feasible to complete in the three-year time period of the award; and
• can be replicated at other academic and clinical experience sites throughout
  the United States.

Applicants should build on or expand existing geriatric curricula and clinical experiences to facilitate tomorrow's nurses in providing excellent care to our older adult population.

Proposal Criteria

All schools of nursing, large and small, across the United States are encouraged to apply. To be eligible, institutional applicants must complete the following by October 5, 2001:

1. Provide an Executive Summary, explaining how the curriculum and clinical changes and care innovations will impact your existing nursing program (describe what your program looks like today and what your program would look like in three years).
   
   
2. Explain how leadership will facilitate "buy in" from curricula committees, the dean of your school, and any other appropriate entities.
   
   
3. Describe how geriatric curriculum will be taught in a specific course or incorporated into existing nursing courses.
   
   
4. List the goals/objectives of your innovations that will be utilized to evaluate your outcomes (letter of support signed by the dean).
   
   
5. Describe how your institution will comply with the 1:1 match for the second and third year of the grant (actual dollars and/or in-kind match of $50,000).
   
   
6. Describe how the innovations from the award will be sustained following the three-year award period.
   
   
7. Explain how the award will be utilized to stimulate recruitment of students into nursing programs.
   
   
8. Describe how the award will create a passion and excitement for nursing students that will stimulate geriatric care choices for professional practice.
   
   
9. Describe new anticipated partnerships between education and practice settings.
   
   
10. Describe how the faculty will communicate their findings with the larger community at the national, state, regional, and local levels.
    
    

Responsibilities of Awardees

• Baccalaureate awardees agree to attend a pre-conference workshop on December 6, 2001 in Washington, DC before AACN's Baccalaureate Education Conference at their own expense.
  
  
• Graduate awardees agree to attend a workshop in February 2002 at AACN's Master's Education Conference held at Amelia Island, Florida at their own expense.
  
  
• All awardees will submit brief semi-annual reports of their activities to AACN.
  
  
• All awardees will communicate their innovations to the nursing community by monographs, curricular models, program contacts, presentations at future AACN conferences, and posting of innovations on AACN's Web site.
  
  
• All awardees will submit an evaluation of the implementation and outcomes of the initiatives to AACN at the completion of the three-year program.
  
  
• In the final year of the grant participation is required at a national meeting to disseminate innovations of the awardees to the nursing community.
  
  
• Applicants must provide $50,000 in matching funds or in-kind support.
  
  

How To Apply

The proposal should be no longer than 7 pages, not including the one page Executive Summary and the Table of Contents. Please single-space the narrative, use 12 point Times New Roman type, and one inch margins. Respond to each criterion by the designated number in this RFP. Appendices must include a course list and CV for the principle investigator and leadership faculty (CVs are to be abbreviated and no more than two pages each). Be sure to include the name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, and fax number of the faculty member who is the contact person for the proposal.

Proposals should be mailed to:
American Association of Colleges of Nursing
One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 530
Washington, DC 20036-1120
Attention: Cheryl A. May

Submissions must be postmarked by midnight October 5, 2001. Please submit four hard copies of the proposal as well as an electronic file on a disk. Applicants will be notified of award decisions by November 5, 2001.

Inquiries

All questions about this request for proposals should be directed to AACN's Project Director Cheryl A. May at (202) 463-6930 or cmay@aacn.nche.edu.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is the national voice for university and four-year-college education programs in nursing - the nation's largest health care profession. Representing more than 550 member schools of nursing at public and private institutions nationwide, AACN's educational, research, governmental advocacy, data collection, publications, and other programs work to establish quality standards for bachelor's- and graduate-degree nursing education, assist deans and directors to implement those standards, influence the nursing profession to improve health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate and graduate nursing education, research, and practice.

The John A. Hartford Foundation, located in New York City, was established in 1929 by John A. Hartford, a former chairman of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. The A&P grocery chain had been founded by his father in the early 1850s. When John and his brother died in the 1950s, the bulk of their estates were left to the Foundation. The overarching goal of the Foundation is to increase the nation's capacity to provide effective and affordable care to its rapidly aging population. Recognizing that nurses play a critical role in the care of older adults, the Foundation thus far has committed over $25 million to strengthening gerontological nursing capacity in both academic and clinical settings. This RFP, to strengthen geriatric curriculum and competency at both baccalaureate and master's levels, is the Foundation's newest program designed to improve the geriatric education and training of nursing students across the United States.

For more information about The John A. Hartford Foundation and its programs, please refer to the Foundation's Web site: www.jhartfound.org.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing
One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 530
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 463-6930 - Fax: (202) 785-8320