Federal Grant Addresses Nursing Shortage

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

FEDERAL GRANT ADDRESSES MINNESOTA NURSING SHORTAGE
Funds U of Minnesota School of Nursing and five health care partners to help new nurses

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (Oct. 14, 2003) -- A new federal grant to the University of Minnesota School of Nursing addresses one of the causes of the state's nursing shortage: difficulties encountered by newly minted nurses as they move from classroom to work.

The $226,000 first-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, was awarded to the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and its partners: Mercy Hospital in Moose Lake; Dakota County Public Health; Fairview University Medical Center, Minneapolis; Methodist Hospital, St. Louis Park; and North Memorial Medical Center, Robbinsdale.

HRSA recommends two subsequent years of funding, contingent on grant progress and funding availability.

New nursing graduates hired in one of the five work settings will participate in a nursing residency program in which they will be mentored individually by senior nurses and receive additional instruction on matters ranging from professional role development to providing care to culturally diverse patients.

"he leap from the classroom to the workplace is huge culture shock,"says Ann Jones, director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. "his program will help new graduate nurses make that transition."

By helping new nurses be successful in the first months of their professional lives, the project should improve nurse retention, Jones says. It will also help the five health care partners recruit diverse nurse applicants by offering a more attractive workplace.

Strengthening support systems for newly hired nurses is a strategy proposed by many national groups. This program creates a new partnership between nursing education and practice in Minnesota that builds on collaborative work over the last five years. Its goal is to develop a nurse resident model that can be used across the state.

Because the five workplaces are so varied, the program will help nurses in diverse settings deliver culturally competent care to an increasingly diverse patient population. The sites include a rural 31-bed hospital, a public health department, an urban academic health care center, an independent hospital, and a hospital within an integrated care system.

The grant is funded through the Nursing Reimbursement Act, which became law in 2002 and was funded in 2003.

The University of Minnesota School of Nursing is the world's oldest continuing university-based school of nursing. A leader in nursing research, it ranked 14th among 600 eligible nursing schools in 2001 grants from the National Institutes of Health. Approximately 450 undergraduate and 330 graduate students are enrolled in the School's B.S.N., M.S. and Ph.D. programs. It is the only school in Minnesota to award a nursing Ph.D., and it has the largest graduate program at the University of Minnesota. As the state's nursing flagship, the school cultivates leadership, producing 55 percent of the faculty in Minnesota's public and private nursing schools, advanced practice nurses, and nurses who can assume leadership positions.

The School of Nursing is one of seven schools and colleges in the Academic Health Center, one of the most comprehensive education and research facilities for health professionals in the nation, fostering interdisciplinary study and research.

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