RIC: Providence journal news

[crazensweet]

Today's paper July 15, 2008

http://www.projo.com/news/veteransjournal/veterans_column_15_07-15-08_9DAS3OQ_v7.3e7f33f.html

Medical Center enters nursing collaborative

" The Providence VA Medical Center and the Rhode Island College School of Nursing have been selected to participate in the VA Nursing Academy.

The academy was established in 2007 to help address the nationwide shortage of nurses. The academy's Enhancing Academic Partnerships program enables competitively selected VA and nursing school partnerships to expand nursing faculty, enhance the professional and scholarly development of nurses, increase student enrollment and promote innovations in nursing education.

The academy is a four-year program which: will expand use of the RIC Nursing Resource Laboratory for simulated learning experiences and competency assessment of both staff and students; will expand the number of innovative clinical rotations that reflect current trends in veteran health services; and will develop a collaborative approach to faculty professional development on scholarly projects and evidence-based practice and research."

My question does this mean RIC will be able to increase its enrollment of nursing students?

[RhodyGirl, RN]

Thanks for posting that, Tessa!

To address your question.....from what I read in your post it does seem like they would be able to admit more students than normal. I'll try to find out for you.....we have an orientation type thing for accepted nursing students on Aug 26th so I will definitely ask!!

[crazensweet]

http://www.research.va.gov/news/press_releases/nursing-060407.cfm

http://www.va.gov/oaa/vana/default.asp

RIC was chosen of 1 in 12 schools in the country to participate...Thats awesome

[cjcsoon2bnp, MSN, RN, NP]

Woah say what?! :dzed:

I never heard anything about this until now but it sounds really interesting. I would like to know what this program is going to offer us. From what I read the program is four years and offers more staff and services for the nursing schools so maybe they will admit more students and have some new toys for the nursing students to use and train with maybe? I'm not sure but it sure does sound interesting to me. Hey Tessa this is a sign that you should apply to RIC and join us.

!Chris

[crazensweet]

Tempting Chris...very tempting..... I guess the pilot program that started in California they selected about 20 students and they remained employed at the VA after graduation. I spoke to a physician yesterday out in Johnston and he said RI VA is were he did some of his residency and he loved it. And he said when you work for VA you cannot get sued. But VA is a good place to work.

[drivefast]

The general idea behind the program is that tha VA has received a grant from the federal government to hire five clinical instructors. This program has been in place at a few other VA hospitals in the country and RIC and the providence VA were awarded the latest grant. These instructors will be fulltime VA staff and adjunct staff at RIC. This will allow five more clinical professors at the VA in med-surg and psych. At this time there is only one perrson hired, so how long it will be before RIC can acctually increase enrollement is a year or two away in my opinion.

[RhodyGirl, RN]

Supposedly this will allow about 20 extra students per year, but who knows for how long. And in the grand scheme of things, it won't impact students very positively because there are still hundreds of applications for very few seats. I thank my lucky stars every day that I am in.