Newswise — Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing has received a $10,000 grant from the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare. Loyola will match this grant to fund the scholarship for one doctoral nursing student in 2014. This funding is part of a national effort to curb the nursing faculty shortage and prepare future nurses for the evolving health-care system.

Loyola’s Jonas Scholar will join nearly 600 future nurse educators and leaders at 110 schools supported by the Jonas Center programs, which includes the Jonas Nurse Leaders Scholars Program and the Jonas Veterans Healthcare Program (JVHP). Scholarships through these initiatives support nurses pursuing PhDs and DNPs, the terminal degrees in the field.

“I am pleased that this award allows our school to prepare an additional future nurse faculty leader,” said Vicki Keough, PhD, APRN-BC, ACNP, FAAN, dean MNSON. “Loyola is proud to match this scholarship in an effort to help curtail the predicted shortfall of nurse educators in the next 20 years.”

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported that 2013 had the lowest enrollment increase in professional nursing programs in the past five years. This is due primarily to a shortage in qualified faculty.

“The call for more nurses – and thus the faculty to prepare them – is massive. Health care in America has never been more complex, yet tens of thousands of would-be nurses are turned away from the profession each year,” said Donald Jonas, co-founder of the Jonas Center. “We’ve stepped up the pace and expanded our programs to meet this need.”

The Jonas Center is a leading philanthropic funder for nursing. The organization works closely with partners in nursing practice and education, public health and philanthropy on innovative grant programs. The majority of its resources support the educational development of nursing doctoral students, increasing the number of advanced practice nurses who can fill roles as primary care providers, nursing school faculty and health care leaders.

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