Taman Siswa

With the baby boomer generation aging and beginning to retire, the University Medical Center is initiating a scholarship program to help combat a nationwide problem: nurse shortages.

The scholarship program is a product of the University’s Health Task Force, an umbrella organization for several sub-task forces composed of nurses and representatives in the University Medical Center human resources department seeking solutions for the rapidly declining numbers of nurses, according to Medical Center Administrator Jeff Chitester.

Nursing Asst. Prof. Dorothy Tullmann said the scholarship program — which will provide recipients a maximum of $3,000 per year for up to two years — will offer current Medical Center employees an opportunity to cover school-related expenses related to nursing education while they continue their work at the Medical Center. The Medical Center has selected 18 of its employees who are working toward becoming registered nurses to receive this funding during the 2008-09 academic year.

Funding for the scholarship was allocated to the Medical Center by the Commonwealth during Virginia’s budgeting process for fiscal year 2008, Chitester said.

According to Chitester, the scholarship program will benefit those who are already employed by the Medical Center.

“The whole goal is to take existing employees, who have been loyal, and give them an opportunity to go back into the nursing program,” he said.

Tullmann said the University Medical Center is one of several hospitals in the nation “encouraging scholarship programs and initiatives to recruit nurses,” noting that an estimated 1.2 million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2014.

Though the scholarship will provide needed training for some nurses, Tullmann noted that it can not resolve all problems related to nursing shortages.

“The nurses are getting older and there is a need for professional nurses to be added as faculty members so as to provide training for the student nurses,” Tullmann said. “It is not the lack of people who wish to pursue nursing, but the lack of nursing faculty. Nursing schools are turning away qualified nurses.”

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