Media contact: Adam Pope, arpope@uab.edu
During the two years of the award, 57 Family Nurse Practitioner students will receive the bulk of their clinical training at these partner sites, which will prepare them to practice more effectively and efficiently in rural and underserved settings statewide.The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing has received more than $4 million in program support and workforce development funding to help students in its nationally ranked graduate programs who are preparing for careers as advanced practice nurses, nurse educators and nurse researchers, as well as to expand primary care services for rural and medically underserved populations.
The total for the school — which holds the highest overall national ranking among nursing schools in Alabama and is the most affordable highly ranked school nationally — includes:
- $2.66 million in highly competitive S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administrationeducation and training grants for the academic year 2017-18 through the Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Program, the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, Advanced Nurse Education Program and Nurse Anesthesia Traineeship Program.
- More than $1.38 million from other organizations, including the Jonas Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Komen Foundation, American Cancer Society, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and the S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This funding provides critical support for various initiatives and longstanding partnerships within the school, including two RWJF Future of Nursing Scholars, two ACS Doctoral Degree Scholarships in Cancer Nursing, collaborations with the Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center and much more.
“The UAB School of Nursing remains vested in providing patients, families and the profession with the best-educated advanced practice nurses, educators and researchers, and these funds are critical to our mission,” said Dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair in Nursing Doreen C. Harper, Ph.D. “They help to ensure that our best and brightest continue their advanced nursing studies and become the leaders of the world’s nursing workforce and those who will meet our greatest health care challenges head on through education, research and clinic practice.”
External Health Resources and Services Administration funding:
- A new two-year ANEW grant totaling more than $1.3 million will allow the school to enhance and expand its commitment to increasing primary care for rural and medically underserved populations across Alabama by integrating behavioral health care training into three existing and two new academic practice partnerships.
- The largest amount the school has ever received through the Nurse Faculty Loan Program — more than $726,000 — will support doctoral students committed to careers as nurse educators who are enrolled full time or part time in the school’s Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing or Doctor of Nursing Practice programs.
The School of Nursing is one of five Alabama nursing schools to receive HRSA funding for 2017-18 through the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, which is aimed at increasing the number of qualified nursing faculty to address a national workforce shortage of bedside nurses and faculty.
The formula used for the Nurse Faculty Loan Program grants 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 greatest need in nursing is for doctorally prepared faculty,” said Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Linda Moneyham, Ph.D. “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. 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. They make us one of the best values in the country for anyone wishing to pursue a nursing degree at any level.”
Moneyham says these grants provide tuition and fees, as well as stipends that support full-time study and the student’s immersion on faculty research teams.
“A hallmark of our school is groundbreaking research, and our Ph.D. students work alongside internationally known nurse scientists,” Moneyham said. “Our ability to provide this level of funding, combined with our nationally and internationally recognized nurse scientists, has increased our capacity to recruit some of the top doctoral students in the nation.”
The UAB School of Nursing is ranked 13th in overall graduate programs, among the top five public schools of nursing in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers innovative bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs, including the state’s only Ph.D. in Nursing degree, and a DNP degree offering BSN, MSN and Nurse Anesthesia Pathways. It also offers more than 10 specialty nurse practitioner tracks, advanced nursing executive majors in administration and informatics, and an Accelerated Master’s in Nursing Pathway for students who already have one degree.