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Grant awarded to address Maryland’s nursing shortage

	Left to right: Project directors Kathleen T. Ogle and Jacquelyn Jordan, and Jody Porter, GBMC's senior vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer

TOWSON, Md. (July 2009) - TU received approximately $1.1 million as one of the initial Who Will Care? grant recipients. (Sixteen other Maryland nursing schools also received grants.) The first-round of Who Will Care? funds will be used to provide additional operating dollars to nursing schools to add faculty, students and clinical technology. Statewide, these initial grants will increase the number of nurses graduating in Maryland by 300 and add 20 faculty positions.

One of TU’s project goals is to increase its nursing graduates by 16 each year through increased capacity and enrollment expansion at the USM Center at Hagerstown. With this award, marketing and recruitment of new students and faculty for spring 2010 enrollment is under way at the Hagerstown campus.

Funds will also be used to develop and implement a comprehensive Nursing Retention and Success Program (NRSP). Dr. Jacquelyn Jordan, TU nursing department chair and project director, is seeking to hire two Nursing Retention and Success Specialists (NRSS). “Not only will this grant permit Towson to expand its current program but will provide the means to support and retain our current students as our program grows.”

The fundraising campaign, which is known as Who Will Care?, has attracted a broad-based group of concerned hospital, insurance, business, and academic leaders; as well as nurses, long-term care providers, and concerned private citizens. In all, $60 million from the public and private sector is sought to fully fund the initiative in order to double the number of nurse graduates in Maryland. The Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC), a campaign donor, has designated a portion of its $500,000 contribution to the TU nursing program.

Office of Sponsored Programs & Research
Enrollment Services Center, Suite 208

Phone: 410-704-2236
Fax: 410-704-4494
E-mail: ospr@towson.edu