The University of West Georgia Tanner Health System School of Nursing recently received approval from the University System of Georgia Board of Regents for full funding of the Nursing Faculty Initiative Recruitment and Retention Grant. The funding is for $299,878 over the next year.
The first goal of the grant is to improve faculty retention and recruitment efforts of the Tanner Health System School of Nursing. The school is proposing to do this through providing a Center for Nursing Scholarship, leadership development training, dissertation consultation for faculty, seed money for faculty research and creating clinical and student support positions to relieve faculty workload.
Dr. Laurie Ware is the PI on the grant and the associate dean and professor for the Tanner Health System School of Nursing. “The grant money will support scholarship, leadership development training, dissertation consultation for faculty, seed money for faculty research and clinical and student support positions to relieve faculty workload,” says Dr. Ware. “I am especially pleased that we will be able to develop the UWG Tanner Health System School of Nursing Center for Nursing Scholarship, which will provide a centralized support system to facilitate ongoing mentoring and support activities to promote faculty development.”
Specifically, the Tanner Health System School of Nursing will add a clinical placement coordinator, to assist in the rapid growth of nursing programs and the increasing requirements of clinical agencies for student placement, and a student success coordinator, to guide students through the increasingly rigorous requirements for successful completion of a baccalaureate degree in nursing.
"The provision in the grant for a clinical placement coordinator and a student success coordinator will enable our faculty to spend much more time interacting and coaching our students,” says Dr. Cindy Epps, associate dean and professor for the Tanner Health System School of Nursing. “We are thrilled to have this opportunity to increase student success in the undergraduate program."
The second goal of the grant is to increase the attractiveness of a career as a nursing faculty within the Tanner Health System School of Nursing. The school plans to achieve this goal by providing additional novice faculty development and support, online teaching development, technology support for clinical faculty, professional development funding for experienced faculty and Academic Nurse Educator certification options.
Susan Welch, the Tanner Health System School of Nursing director of the EdD program and the Co-PI on the grant, says that this is the UWG Tanner Health System School of Nursing’s second application for NFIG funds. “The University of West Georgia Tanner Health System School of Nursing sought the Nursing Faculty Initiative Grant in order to provide assistance to nursing faculty involved in the BSN programs, MSN programs, and EdD in Nursing Education doctorate program,” Susan says. “This funding will enable faculty to obtain leadership training, receive technological resources, enable clinical placement assistance and have access to their very own nursing research center located in the UWG Tanner Health System School of Nursing.”
For more information on the Tanner Health System School of Nursing, please visit nursing.westga.edu.
