The School of Nursing has received a $30,000 grant from the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare that will fund the studies of three doctoral nursing students in 2014-2016.
The funds will be used in conjunction with matching funds from the Byrdine F. Lewis Scholarship. As a recipient of the Jonas Center grant, The Lewis School is part of a national effort to stem a faculty shortage and prepare future nurses as the U.S. healthcare system continues to evolve.
The Lewis School Jonas Scholars join nearly 600 future nurse educators and leaders at 110 schools supported by Jonas Center programs, the Jonas Nurse Leaders Scholars Program and Jonas Veterans Healthcare Program. These scholarships support nurses pursuing either a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) or a Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.), the terminal degrees in the field.
”We are very pleased to receive this funding from the Jonas Center for advanced nursing education scholarships,” said Margaret Wilmoth, Lewis School dean. “Scholarships for graduate students, especially those pursing terminal degrees, are rare. We are also grateful for the support from the Lewis family to be able to provide the necessary matching funds for these scholars.”
The Lewis School grant supports one Ph.D. Jonas Nurse Leader Scholar, one Ph.D. Jonas Veterans Healthcare Scholar and one D.N.P. Jonas Veterans Healthcare Scholar. The Jonas Scholars are Belena Butler, Kim Massey and Stephanie Thomas. The school enrolls more than 330 graduate nursing students each year, 10 percent in the Ph.D. and D.N.P. programs. These are the first Jonas Scholars for the university.
The Jonas Center, the leading philanthropic funder for nursing, is addressing a critical need, evidenced by troubling data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing showing that 2013 saw the lowest enrollment increase in professional registered nurse programs in the past five years. This is due primarily to a shortage in qualified faculty.
“The call for more nurses – and thus the faculty to prepare them – is massive. Healthcare in America has never been more complex, yet tens of thousands of would-be nurses are turned away from the profession each year,” said Donald Jonas, co-founder of the Jonas Center. “We’ve stepped up the pace and expanded our programs to meet this need.”