TWU Nursing Faculty Receive NIGP Grants

11/24/03

DALLAS/HOUSTON — Four Texas Woman’s University College of Nursing faculty have been awarded Nursing Innovation Grant Program funds totaling $347,739.

Dr. Kathryn Tart and Dr. Sally Northam, both on TWU’s Houston campus, have been awarded $297,739 for the “Nurse Educator Web-Technology Outreach Network,” a project that could help ease the state’s nursing crisis.

The Nurse Educator Web-Technology Outreach Network is designed to train nurses to become nursing instructors primarily through online courses. Nurses who want to teach can complete nearly two-thirds of their master’s or doctoral degrees, as well as post-master’s studies, online at TWU. Clinical coursework still will take place on campus, and the grant also provides for 24 stipends for nurses who might have some financial hardship in completing the clinicals or other courses.

Training more nursing instructors to teach undergraduate nursing students is critical to solving the nursing shortage. Nursing schools and colleges turn away hundreds of students each year because they don’t have enough faculty to teach all the students who apply.

“This is the fist time TWU has received funding specifically to address the faculty shortage, which is a component of the nursing shortage,” said Dr. Carolyn Gunning, interim provost at TWU. “The grant will allow us to expand our role as nurse educators.”

Dr. Sharon Van Sell and Dr. Judy Johnson-Russell, both on TWU’s Parkland campus in Dallas, have been awarded $50,000 for the “Patient Simulation Laboratory Retention Project.”

Senior-level undergraduate nursing students who are at risk for dropping out of the nursing program because of a learning anxiety while interacting with patients will participate in a patient simulation lab. The students will work with high-tech patient simulators to build their confidence, expand their knowledge and solidify their critical thinking skills. A variety of true-to-life scenarios — from heart attacks to giving birth — can be created using the patient simulators.

“The simulators can be programmed for a variety of patient conditions and they respond to the treatment they’re given. Students further develop their nursing skills and confidence working with the simulators,” Dr. Gunning said.

The NIGP was established by the 77th Legislature to help relieve the state’s nursing shortage and is funded with proceeds from the Texas tobacco lawsuit settlement.

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For Further Information Contact:

Roy Kron
Director of News and Information
Tel: (940) 898-3456
e-mail: rkron@twu.edu