AACN Awards Grant Monies
to 18 Schools of Nursing in Support of Careers in Geriatric
Nursing Hartford Foundation Supports Efforts to Improve
Care for Older Adults
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 31, 2005 – The American
Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) has awarded
grant monies to 18 nursing schools across the country
to increase the pool 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 over 70 new graduate
students pursuing careers as geriatric advanced practice
nurses.
“The John A. Hartford
Foundation is clearly committed to improving the quality
of nursing care available to our nation’s growing
older adult population,” said AACN President Jean
E. Bartels. “AACN is grateful to the foundation for
its generous contributions to professional nursing education
and for supporting this grant program that champions careers
in geriatric nursing.”
Through the Creating Careers
in Geriatric Advanced Practice Nursing project, AACN awards
scholarship monies to schools of nursing with existing
geriatric advanced practice nursing programs to increase
student enrollment. The project was launched in 2001 using
$2 million in funding from the Hartford Foundation. Although
the initial Creating Careers project is now preparing
over 160 individuals as geriatric advanced practice nurses,
the need for a critical mass of skilled providers still
exists. The project also provides for networking, mentorship,
role modeling, and leadership activities between scholarship
awardees and experts in geriatric nursing.
Schools awarded grant monies
include Binghamton University, Case Western Reserve University,
Duke University, Florida Atlantic University, New York
University, Oakland University, Pennsylvania State University,
Radford University, Seattle Pacific University, St. Louis
University, University of California-Los Angeles, University
of Iowa, University of Massachusetts at Worcester, University
of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, University of
Rhode Island, University of Texas Health Science Center
at San Antonio, and Yale University. All schools receiving
grants were required to provide matching funds. Scholarship
monies will be disbursed to schools in Fall 2005.
Along with increasing the
number and diversity of geriatric nurses, this initiative
will help to promote opportunities for nurses to establish
and build careers in geriatric advanced practice nursing,
thereby improving access and quality of care for an ever-increasing
aging population. “Continuation of this project will
not only increase the number of practitioners, said Donna
Regenstreif, Senior Program Officer with the Hartford
Foundation, “but it will also enhance the leadership
potential of geriatric advanced practice nurses, thus
ultimately advancing the Foundation’s goal of ensuring
quality care for our nation’s older adults.”
Read more about the geriatric
nursing education initiatives supported by AACN and the
Hartford Foundation at http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/Hartford/index.htm.
For details about other gerontological nursing programs
supported by the foundation, see http://www.hgni.org.
The American Association
of Colleges of Nursing is the national voice for university
and four-year-college education programs in nursing. Representing
more than 580 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,
Inc. of New York is a private philanthropy established
in 1929 by John A. Hartford. Mr. Hartford and his brother,
George L. Hartford, both former chief executives of the
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, left the bulk
of their estates to the Foundation upon their deaths in
the 1950s. Prior to 1979, the Foundation primarily supported
clinically-oriented biomedical research projects. Subsequently,
it focused its support on improving the quality and financing
of health care and enhancing the capacity of the health
care system to accommodate the nation’s growing elderly
population. Since 1995 the Foundation has focused extensively
on enhancing the nation’s capacity to provide effective
and affordable care to its growing older adult population
through grantmaking related to enhancing geriatric research
and training (physicians, nurses, social workers), and
integrating and improving health services for older adults.
CONTACT: Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
