FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2004
CONTACT: Millie Gonzalez
Office of University Relations
(908) 737-6397, ext. 4-4089
E-mail: mgonzale@kean.edu
Kean’s Department of Nursing Receives $380K in Grants
UNION, N.J. – As the new school year gets under way,
Kean’s Department of Nursing is delighted to announce that it has
received three grants totaling more than $380,000 that will allow for
the development and expansion of master’s-level options in nursing.
In fact, Kean University is among only eight institutions of higher education
in the country to be awarded an Advanced Education Nursing Program Grant
by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources
and Services Administration (HRSA). This three-year grant, totaling more
than $320,000, provides funding for the development of a graduate program
and post-master’s certification program to prepare community-health
nurses with a school-nurse major.
In keeping with its mission of providing academic and clinical training
to prepare registered nurses for a continuously changing health-care system,
the University will develop and implement a curriculum that addresses
transcultural, community and school nursing, as well as leadership. The
program will address a dire statewide need for more high-quality and culturally
sensitive certified school nurses who are able to promote the national
health goals of Healthy People 2010, a statement of national health objectives
designed to identify, and establish goals to reduce, the most significant
preventable threats to health. AENP adheres to three primary objectives:
increasing the number of certified school nurses who are prepared to work
in diversified environments; enhancing the overall diversity of the school
nursing health-care workforce; and bolstering the number of highly qualified
school nurses in the participating high-need districts. By partnering
with seven school districts from three urban New Jersey counties, nurses
will play a vital role in helping to reduce health-risk behaviors and
improve the health status of youth. Directed by Dr. Susan Salmond, chair
of the department, who prepared the proposals, coordinated by Dr. Minnie
Campbell, professor, and Dr. Marie Foley, assistant professor, and supported
by the University’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, the
AENP grant reaches out to New Jersey schools in the East Orange, Elizabeth,
Irvington, Linden, New Brunswick, Orange, Perth Amboy, and Plainfield
school districts.
The Department of Nursing is complemented by two additional grants recently
received to support graduate nursing education at Kean University. The
Promise of Nursing for New Jersey Nursing School Grant administered by
the National Student Nurses’ Association awarded Kean $16,000 to
initiate a master’s degree and post-master’s certification
in nursing education. Additionally, HRSA awarded Kean the Professional
Nurse Traineeship Grant of more than $38,000 to support the Master of
Science in nursing program by offering tuition assistance.
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