In one week, Nursing faculty win $3.2 million in grants

Contributed by Sara Carney

Over the course of five days, the College of Nursing at Augusta University learned that four of its faculty members received grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration—a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that works to expand health care services for underserved populations. The grant amount totaled over $3.2 million among the four recipients.

These HRSA grants will fund ongoing work in diversity and inclusion, a rural/underserved area training program, Nursing Anesthesia Program student stipends, and a nurse faculty loan program.

Dr. Pamela Cook, assistant dean for student affairs and associate professor, was awarded $1.9 million to fund the Nursing Workforce Diversity Program. The program seeks to increase diversity in the field of nursing by starting with students. The grant will foster educational opportunities to those from disadvantaged backgrounds, increase the number of qualified applicants to the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs, and increase retention and graduation of minority students.

Dr. Jean Pawl’s $1.2 million grant will fund a program to help rural and medically underserved Georgians gain access to appropriate health care services. The program will create a pipeline to provide advanced practice nurses to areas in need and increase the number of preceptors available to educate advanced practice nurses. The pipeline is supported by partnerships between practices and the College of Nursing. This will ensure that family nurse practitioner students will obtain a quality education in the health care needs of rural and medically underserved communities.

The $94 thousand grant awarded to Dr. Julie Zadinsky, assistant dean for research and associate professor, will fund the College of Nursing’s Nurse Faculty Loan Program for students in the PhD and post-master’s Doctor of Nursing Practice programs. This grant will help students in these programs with their educational expenses and will help prepare them for nurse faculty positions.

A grant for $37 thousand was awarded to Dr. Shannon Broxton, assistant professor in the Department of Physiological and Technological Nursing, for Nursing Anesthesia Program stipends. The grant will help students studying to be nurse anesthetists pay for costs associated with obtaining clinical experience, including travel to clinical sites.

“These grants together are a strong complement the College of Nursing’s strategic plan to raise the bar. We congratulate and thank Drs. Broxton, Cook, Pawl and Zadinsky and their teams for their efforts and these achievements,” said Dr. Lucy Marion, dean of the College of Nursing.