U. nursing school is awarded VA grant

The Department of Veterans Affairs has selected the University of Utah College of Nursing as one of four national "VA Nursing Academy" sites. The resulting collaboration will expand the number of nursing students the college can train by about 24 undergraduates and 12 graduate students annually for five years.

The "innovative collaboration," said Maureen Keefe, dean of the college, "really distinguishes our college of nursing as one of the leaders in the country."

That there's a nursing shortage — and it's going to get worse as baby boomers retire — is well known. But the problem is not a lack of applicants who'd like to train. Rather, it's limited resources in terms of faculty, space and other factors that cap how many qualified and willing students nursing schools can accept, Keefe said.

The VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, working with the U., applied for the national VA grant, which will pay for five teachers, taken from VA clinicians, to increase the nursing faculty, said Shella Stovall, associate chief nurse at the Salt Lake VA. More than 40 school and nearby VA hospital partnerships applied.

The students would have enhanced opportunities to work in the VA as part of their training but would have no obligation to the VA as far as agreeing to work there later. That's something Stovall hopes students will choose, however, because of the experiences they have during training.

"We would like to be the employer of choice," she said. "But this is going to be good for the entire community."

Besides increasing student enrollment, Keefe said the collaboration will enrich students' experiences and provide opportunities for clinical research projects. The college and the VA are also looking at places within the veteran health system where students can get more and different experience, such as with telehealth medicine.

The soon-to-start class is already set, so the expansion of students won't begin right away. But Keefe said the goal is to phase up as quickly as possible and add 24 new undergrad and 12 graduate students each year — a compounding effect that will mean the fourth expanded class has almost 100 more students than the current class of 128 undergraduate students.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing says more than 42,000 qualified nursing school applicants were turned away nationwide in 2006 because there weren't enough teachers, clinical sites, classroom space and clinical mentors.

The other selected academy sites are at University of Florida in Gainesville, San Diego State University and Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn. In 2008 and 2009, the VA plans to add more for a total of 12 academies. Information is available online at www.va.gov/oaa.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com