Arizona State University’s College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation has been awarded a $1.3 million federal grant to design a program for improving nurse retention and patient care.

The college will partner with Abrazo Health Care of Arizona on the five-year Nurses-to-Nurses initiative. In the East Valley, Abrazo Health Care owns Paradise Valley Hospital, and its TMC Advanced Imaging has offices in Chandler, Scottsdale and Tempe.

The grant was awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The goal of the project is to implement a working model for a healthy nursing work environment that can be adapted by hospitals and health organizations across the country.

“Through this project we will collaborate on improving the overall work environment for nurses — and subsequently improve the patient care experience,” said Judy Schueler, chief learning officer at Abrazo Health Care.

Abrazo Health Care employs more than 5,000 people across the Valley and is experiencing nursing shortages similar to other hospital systems in the state. The Nurses-to-Nurses project will include a careerdevelopment initiative to increase retention, and advance skills and competency among Abrazo Health Care’s registered nurses.

David Hrabe, director of the Academy of Continuing Education in the College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, is the grant project director and said more than 600 nurses, their managers, executives and administrators will take part in the continuing education workshops presented by ASU faculty in residence at Abrazo Health Care.

“We’re very excited about our partnership with Abrazo,” Hrabe said.

The project will create a new Center for Professional and Clinical Excellence, which will offer on-site advisement for Abrazo nurses, encourage specialty certification and establish a recognition program for outstanding performance

This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2006 at 9:46 pm and is filed under College Loans, Education, Financial Aid, Student Loan. Tags: College, College Grant, Education, Grant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.