Hinds Community College announced that the Hinds Community College Development Foundation has been chosen as one of 19 foundations nationwide to receive funding from Partners Investing in Nursing's Future, a unique national initiative to help address the long-term shortage of available nurses across the country.

Hinds Community College Development Foundation is joined by a variety of partners including Hinds Community College Division of Nursing, Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce, University of Mississippi School of Nursing, University of Mississippi Hospitals and Clinics, St. Dominic Memorial Hospital, Mississippi College, Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, Central Mississippi Medical Center, North Mississippi Medical Center, Itawamba Community College, the Mississippi Hospital Association, and the Mississippi Health Care Foundation (Long Term Care Association), and other state wide partners. These organizations  identified the need in Mississippi to develop a project focused on geriatric care and have joined together to create the Mississippi Geriatric Dedicated Education Unit Initiative (MGDEU), a new learning model that incorporates the knowledge and skills of experienced bedside nurses to enhance the clinical experience of student nurses.

Led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Health Foundation, Partners Investing in Nursing's Future is in its fourth year providing support to local foundations to act as catalysts in their own communities and develop strategies for creating and sustaining a viable nursing workforce. These foundations have forged local partnerships to apply for the competitive grant, raising awareness of the nursing shortage in their own communities.  

Through Partners Investing in Nursing's Future, initiative directors are hoping that local and regional foundations create a domino effect - where innovative ideas are tested locally and shared nationally with an exponential effect on the workforce shortage.

To help develop solutions and lead efforts within Mississippi, the Hinds Community College Development Foundation has been awarded a two-year grant of $560,000.

"In our current economic climate, we are pleased to be a part of a national program that can positively impact the nursing shortage in our state," said Dr. Clyde Muse, president of Hinds Community College.  "Enhanced nursing faculty salaries, expansion of nursing school enrollments, and numerous other activities designed to increase access to this career field are strongly supported by a long list of stakeholders, including our governor, the Mississippi Legislature, the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, the Mississippi State Board for Community and Junior Colleges, as well as many public and private partners."

The 2009 grant cycle marks the fourth year of funding, totaling more than $10 million of investment by the program in local partnerships.  In addition, Partners Investing in Nursing's Future has leveraged more than $8 million in local and regional funding, ensuring the long term sustainability of the projects.

"Nurses are the nation's most direct link to patient safety and quality of care.  We are committed to helping find the most innovative solutions to the nursing shortage so we can protect patients now and over the long term," said Susan B. Hassmiller, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., senior adviser for nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "This unique partnership of the philanthropic community helps identify new approaches that go well beyond what any one foundation could do alone."

During the program's first three years, 69 foundation partners in 24 states and the territories of the Western Pacific established more than 300 local partnerships among nursing organizations, funders and workforce development boards to address the nursing shortage. To date, three organizations have been funded in Mississippi through Partner's Investing in Nursing's Future.

"Mississippi is recognized nationally for the nursing workforce data that is provided through the Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce," said Dr. Libby Mahaffey, Hinds Community College dean of Nursing and Allied Health. "We are extremely pleased to be partnering with ONW in this project."

Mahaffey said that a continuing, aggregate decline in the nursing workforce is expected due to a complex combination of factors including an aging population needing more and intensive health care services, an aging nursing workforce unable to sustain its numbers and a nursing education system with too few educators to train the next generation of nurses.

"This grant will help us expand our efforts to provide the students with the expertise of both staff nurses and faculty in a learning environment with a focus on geriatric care," said Debbie Logan, project director with the Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce. "The geriatric clinical education model will allow the staff nurse to act as the clinical teacher for the students with the integration of knowledge and support of faculty members to provide the optimum learning experience for the nursing students working with geriatric patients."

Grant recipients named today are:

1)  Arkansas Community Foundation (Arkansas)  
Planning for Workforce Development in Geriatric and Long-Term Care in Arkansas will improve the educational preparation of registered nurses caring for frail older adults through a unified educational pathway.

2) The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida, Inc. (Florida)
Promoting the Use of Simulation Technology in Florida Nurse Education will maximize the use of simulation technology in the preparation of new and current RNs in the state.

3)  The Community Foundation of the Great River Bend (Iowa)
Pathways and Perceptions: A Life Span Model for Nursing Work Force Development will strengthen the educational infrastructure and faculty development in the Quad Cities community.

4)  The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, with Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation (West Virginia)
West Virginia Nursing Leadership Institute: Team Leadership Development Program
Comprehensive Gerontologic Education Partnership will foster new nursing leaders in the state in a variety of practice settings.   

5)  Hinds Community College Development Foundation (Mississippi)
Geriatric Dedicated Education Unit Initiative will develop a clinical education experience model to increase the number of nurses adequately prepared to care for geriatric patients.

6)  John T. Vucurevich Foundation, with First Interstate Bank Foundation (South Dakota)
Education Service Partners Program: Prepare and Retain will develop programs to ensure that nurses are retained in the nursing workforce throughout their career continuum.

7)  The Sangamon County Community Foundation, with Kindred Healthcare Foundation (Illinois)

Central Illinois Nursing Initiative will expand nursing education capacity, articulation, and diversity in the region by aligning nursing education opportunities.

8)  Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Inc., with Edward J. and Virginia M. Routhier Foundation, (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island)
Creativity and Connections: Building a Regional Nursing Education Framework will develop nursing education throughout the New England that is more aligned with the needs of the diverse communities in the region.

9)  Vetter Foundation, Nebraska Health Care Foundation, Iowa West Foundation and University of Nebraska Foundation (Nebraska)
Nebraska Geriatric Nursing Quality Improvement will improve the quality of geriatric nursing and leadership in the state.

10)  West Central Initiative, Frank W. Veden Charitable Trust, The Initiative Foundation (Minnesota)
Building Faculty Capacity in Geriatric Nursing for Central Minnesota will increase the number of competent registered nurses providing nursing care to elderly persons in a variety of settings in the region.

For more information about Partners Investing in Nursing's Future, go to www.PartnersinNursing.org.