UVA School of Nursing Receives First-Ever GAANN Grant
Date released: 02 Oct 2009
Contact: Dory Hulse, Communications Director
(434)924-0085 or doryhulse@virginia.edu
UVA School of Nursing Receives GAANN Grant for 1st Time
Written by Senior Communications Intern Hannah Walker
The University of Virginia School of Nursing was awarded a $500,000 Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) grant from the U.S. Department of Education, for the first time, to support three PhD fellowships each year for the next three years.
Director of the PhD program at the School of Nursing and Principle Investigator of the grant, Barbara Parker, PhD, RN, FAAN, Theresa A. Thomas Professor in Primary Care Nursing, said “It is unusual for a School of Nursing to receive this award, so we are very pleased with the support.”
When writing the proposal for the GAANN grant this past spring, it was believed that this funding would be a way to allow PhD students to get through the program more rapidly, which would help address the national nursing shortage with more immediacy.
Now that the PhD program has received the funding, the goals of the GAANN fellowship are to increase the number of new students admitted to the program and to increase the PhD students’ teaching skills. Looking at the big picture, to reach both of these goals would ultimately help alleviate the national nursing shortage because nursing educators are required to educate the nurses that the country needs.
The PhD students who are chosen for this fellowship will receive full tuition and fees, including up to a $30K per year stipend and an $11K per year to cover professional expenses, such as research resources, text books, or travel to present at or attend a conference.
The School is currently in the development stages of the fellowship application process. The first three fellows will be selected by the end of September from currently enrolled PhD students. The School of Nursing expects more applicants for the PhD program because, for the next two years, the fellows will be new, incoming PhD students. The GAANN funding will make it possible for some nursing students to further their education when it was not financially possible for them before.
The only requirement for this fellowship is the student must be enrolled full-time in the PhD program, have an ultimate career goal of nursing research and education, and take additional classes to develop their teaching skills.
For information about the PhD program at the School of Nursing visit the website at http://www.nursing.virginia.edu/programs/phd/.
GAANN Program
The Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need program provides fellowships, through academic departments and programs of institutes of higher education, to assist graduate students with excellent records who demonstrate financial need and plan to pursue the highest degree available in their course study at the institution in a field designated as an area of national need.
Grants are awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to programs and institutions to sustain and enhance the capacity for teaching and research in areas of national need.
School of Nursing
The University of Virginia School of Nursing stands among the top 5% in the nation, ranked 19th by US News & World Report; two of its graduate programs are currently listed in the U.S. News Top Ten. With a vigorous research program that includes studies in rural health care and disparities, oncology, gerontology, complementary therapies and nursing history, the School has implemented new programs and strategies to address the national nursing shortage and the concurrent need for more highly educated nurses to deliver increasingly complex health care. The recently opened Claude Moore Nursing Education Building and upcoming renovation of McLeod Hall allow for an enrollment increase and expansion of the Clinical Simulation Learning Center and the Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry. Dean and Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing Dorrie Fontaine, RN, PhD, FAAN, is the former associate dean for academic programs at the University of California San Francisco and a past president of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the largest specialty nursing organization in the world. For more information about the UVA School of Nursing and its programs, visit www.nursing.virginia.edu.