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Nursing Receives Grant for 15 Scholarships Through RWJF New Careers in Nursing Program

SCHOLARSHIPS SUPPORT SECOND CAREER NURSES FROM GROUPS UNDERREPRESENTED IN THE PROFESSION.

UHM Nursing announced today that for the fifth time, it has awarded a grant from the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) New Careers in Nursing Scholarship ProgramIt is one of 52 schools of nursing that will comprise the final cohort of the program. For the 2014-2015 academic year, UH Manoa Nursing will receive $150,000 to support traditionally underrepresented students who are making a career switch to nursing through an accelerated baccalaureate or master’s degree program. NCIN is a program of RWJF and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN).

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation group photo New Careers in Nursing has made amazing strides in helping schools of nursing recruit and retain diverse students in these competitive and rigorous accelerated degree programs,” said David Krol, MD, MPH, FAAP, RWJF senior program officer. “Through supporting these institutions, NCIN is working to increase the diversity of our nursing workforce, while also assisting schools of nursing in making their institutions more inclusive. The leadership, mentoring and other support these institutions provide are helping to prepare a diverse nursing workforce able to meet the challenges associated with building a culture of health in our nation.”

Each NCIN Scholar has already earned a bachelor’s degree in another field, and is making a transition to nursing through an accelerated nursing degree program, which prepares students to assume the role of registered nurse in as little as 12-18 months.

At the UH Manoa School of Nursing, 15 students will be awarded NCIN scholarships. Since 2008, the NCIN program has distributed 3,517 scholarships to students at 130 unique schools of nursing. This year, funding for 400 scholarships was granted to 52 schools of nursing.

“We are honored that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has elected to once again recognize our Master’s Entry Program in Nursing with this important award,” said UHM Nursing Dean Mary G. Boland. “This award will create 15 scholarships and play a key role in ensuring our continued ability to educate a diverse, qualified nursing workforce for Hawaii’s future.”

In addition to a $10,000 scholarship, NCIN scholars receive other support to help them meet the demands of an accelerated degree program. All NCIN grantee schools maintain a leadership program and a mentoring program for their scholars, as well as a pre-entry immersion program to assist scholars in learning essential study, test-taking, and other skills needed to succeed in their program of study.

“Nursing and nursing education are at a critical juncture right now, and NCIN’s exemplary approach to supporting nursing schools is helping to strengthen both,” said AACN President Eileen Breslin, PhD, RN, FAAN. “NCIN’s creative, innovative and responsive approach to providing grantees with tools to ensure academic success will result in lasting changes at nursing schools nationwide. The NCIN program has truly raised the bar for recruitment, retention, mentoring and leadership development for nursing students from groups underrepresented in nursing.”

The 2010 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, recommends increasing the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree or higher, and increasing the diversity of students to create a nursing workforce prepared to meet the healthcare demands of diverse populations across the lifespan. NCIN is helping to advance those recommendations by enabling schools to expand student capacity and by encouraging more diversity.

By bringing more nurses into the profession at the baccalaureate and master’s degree levels, the NCIN program also helps to address the nation’s nurse faculty shortage. This trend is reflected in the NCIN scholars, as 91 percent of the students receiving funding in the first three years of the program indicated a desire to advance their education to the master’s and doctoral levels.

For more information about the UHM Nursing Master’s Entry Program in Nursing program, visit www.nursing.hawaii.edu/master-entry-program-in-nursing.html.

To learn more about the NCIN program, visit www.NewCareersInNursing.org.

About NCIN – The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) joined with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) to create New Careers in Nursing (NCIN): an RWJF Scholarship Program to help alleviate the nursing shortage and increase the diversity of nursing professionals. Through annual grants to schools of nursing, NCIN provides $10,000 scholarships to college graduates with degrees in other fields who wish to transition into nursing through an accelerated baccalaureate or master’s nursing program. For more information, visitwww.newcareersinnursing.org.

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve the health and health care of all Americans.We are striving to build a national culture of health that will enable all Americans to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitteror on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.

About AACN – The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is the national voice for baccalaureate and graduate programs in nursing. Representing more than 750 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. For more information, visitwww.aacn.nche.edu.

About University of Hawaii at Manoa Nursing – UH Manoa Nursing, the Nursing Capitol of the Pacific, is the leader in nursing education and research in Hawaii with outreach to Asia and the Pacific Basin. We support the mission of the University of Hawaii at Manoa: to provide an innovative, caring and multicultural environment in which faculty, students and staff work together to generate and transmit knowledge, wisdom, and values to promote quality of life and health for present and future generations. The School offers BS, master’s, and doctoral programs. To reflect Hawaii’s unique cultural diversity and heritage, UH Manoa Nursing is committed to increasing Native Hawaiian and other underserved people in all nursing programs. For more information, visit www.nursing.hawaii.edu.

The University of Hawaii Foundation, a nonprofit organization, raises private funds to support the University of HawaiiSystem. The mission of the University of Hawaii Foundation is to unite donors’ passions with the University of Hawaii’s aspirations by raising philanthropic support and managing private investments to benefit UH, the people of Hawaii and our future generations. www.uhfoundation.org

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