The UAB School of Nursing has received more than $5.15 million in external funding for the 2016-17 academic year.The UAB School of Nursing has received more than $5.15 million in external funding for the 2016-17 academic year to help support students in its nationally ranked graduate programs who are preparing for careers as advanced practice nurses, nurse educators and nurse researchers.
The total for the school – which holds the highest overall national ranking in Alabama and is the most affordable highly ranked school nationally – includes:
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$2.98 million in highly competitive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), education and training grants to provide funding for training new nurse practitioners who will practice in Alabama’s rural and underserved areas, and in behavioral health care in the school’s Providing Access to Healthcare (PATH) and Heart Failure Clinics
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$1.47 million awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA, through the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, Advanced Education Nurse Traineeship and Nurse Anesthesia Traineeship
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More than $700,000 from other organizations, including the Jonas Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Komen Foundation, American Cancer Society, and National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
The school is ranked 15th out of 519 nursing schools with accredited master’s or doctoral programs nationwide by U.S. News & World Report in its prestigious survey of the Best Graduate Nursing Schools for 2017.
“Nurses are the front line of care for patients today and often lead the care of patients with significant rates of chronic illness and disease,” said Dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair in Nursing Doreen C. Harper, Ph.D. “That is why helping the best and the brightest students further their educations — whether it be as faculty, clinicians or researchers — through these grant, scholarship and traineeship programs is an essential part of the UAB School of Nursing’s mission.”
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Linda Moneyham, Ph.D., said the funding ensures the best and brightest nurses continue their advanced nursing studies, providing Alabama’s and the world’s nursing workforce with leaders who will face our greatest heath and patient care challenges head on, through education, research and clinical practice.
“These funds are critical to achieving our mission to develop a highly educated nursing workforce that will be tomorrow’s leaders in health care, nursing education and nursing research,” Moneyham said. “Graduate nursing education can be costly, and most nurses returning to graduate school are concerned about funding their educations without placing a financial burden on their families.”
The UAB School of Nursing is one of five in the state to receive HRSA funding for 2016-17 through the Nurse Faculty Loam Program, which is aimed at increasing the number of qualified nursing faculty to address a national workforce shortage of not only bedside nurses but also faculty.
“The greatest need in nursing is for doctorally prepared faculty. We make our NFLP funds available to our DNP and Ph.D. students who intend to pursue employment as faculty in a school of nursing upon graduation,” Moneyham said.
NFLP grants are formula-based, meaning the amount of funds awarded to a school are based on the cost of tuition and fees per student per academic year as well as the number of students to be funded — which means the UAB School of Nursing’s affordability versus other public and private schools nationally is an advantage for students seeking graduate degrees who need tuition assistance.
The school’s programs consistently rate among the nation’s best not only in the quality of educational and research opportunities, but also in value, according to a number of national surveys. The Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program was ranked No. 1 in the “Top 50 Best Value MSN Programs” in a list compiled by the website valuecolleges.com. The Nurse Anesthesia program was ranked No. 6 in the nation in the “Top 30 Most Affordable Certified Nurse Anesthetist Programs” by the website collegevaluesonline.com.
UAB School of Nursing is the only one in Alabama with NIH research funding.“Many of our graduate students choose the UAB School of Nursing not only because of the quality of our graduate programs, in terms of both classroom and research experiences, but also because of our low tuition rates and available funding,” Moneyham said. “They make us one of the best values in the country for anyone wishing to pursue a nursing degree at any level.”
Other tuition assistance programs provided by HRSA and offered by the school not only support adding nurse faculty to the nursing workforce pipeline, they also seek to put more advanced practice nurses at the patient’s bedside. The Advanced Nursing Education Traineeship and Advanced Nursing Education grant support the training of primary care nurse practitioners, and the Nurse Anesthetist Traineeship — of which UAB has one of two in the state and the only one at a publicly funded college or university — increase access to nurse anesthetist care for underserved populations.
“Each year, these programs provide aid for tuition and fees that enable many of our graduate students to complete their graduate nursing education, many of whom would not pursue advanced nursing education without such support,” Moneyham said. “A good portion of the funding is earmarked to support nurses from rural and underserved areas to prepare as primary care nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetists to help alleviate the shortage of these providers in underserved areas of Alabama.”
Because the UAB School of Nursing is the only one in Alabama with NIH research funding, which totals more than $9.7 million and brings more than $2 million annually into the school and university, the robust research program attracts top doctoral students whose research is already impacting patient care nationally.
More than $700,000 has also been awarded to the school for these students through other grants, including Jonas Foundation scholarships, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation doctoral scholarships, Komen Foundation scholarships, American Cancer Society fellowships, and National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health traineeships.
“We are proud to produce nurses who know how to deliver the best-quality nursing care to achieve better clinical outcomes for the populations we serve, who are catalysts for innovation, advancement and new discoveries, and who are internationally renowned nursing faculty teaching and mentoring tomorrow’s nurse leaders,” Harper said. “Funding such as this is why our school has more than 16,000 graduates who impact health care as expert clinicians, deans and directors of nursing programs, executives and presidents of university and companies, scientists, advanced-practice registered nurses, faculty, and other professional leaders.”