The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing has been awarded a 4-year, nearly $4-million dollar federal grant to help recruit and train the next generation of nurses.
The Health Resources and Services Administration grant will help fund what project director Dr Heidi Keeler calls “a Nursing Workforce Clinical Preceptor Academy,” on multiple facets of preparing nurses in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri.
Dr Keeler says everyone “at one time or another will require the astute care skills of a nurse, (and) this grant will help ensure that the nurses who train up-and-coming nurses are ready, available and supported.”
Keeler says the project will provide the resources needed for innovative education and development programs that bring together the academic and clinic sides with local communities.
The goals include assessing what preceptors – the experienced nurses leading the training and learning – need to do their jobs the best they can, and creating partnerships for new clinical teaching opportunities.
Keeler says they also want to address barriers in recruiting and retaining both preceptors and the students they train, help nurses in understanding how to help culturally-diverse patients, and enhance their collective expertise.