Cold War Veterans Blog

VA Announces New Nursing Academy Sites
Department Strengthens Partnerships with Seven Nursing Schools

WASHINGTON (July 31, 2008) -- To provide compassionate, highly-trained
nurses to serve the health care needs of the nation's veterans, the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is establishing new partnerships
with seven of the country's finest nursing schools. The partnerships
will bring to 10 the number of collaborations between the Department and
nursing schools under the VA Nursing Academy.

"The expanded role of VA in the education of nurses will ensure the
Department has the nurses needed to continue our world-class health care
for veterans," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.
"The VA Nursing Academy expands our teaching faculty, improves
recruitment and retention, and creates new educational and research
opportunities."

The VA Nursing Academy is a virtual organization with central
administration in Washington. It expands learning opportunities for
nursing students at VA facilities, funds additional faculty positions so
competitively selected nursing school partners will accept additional
baccalaureate-level students, and increases recruitment and retention of
VA nurses. The five-year, $40 million program began in 2007.

Seven nursing schools will form new partnerships with nine VA medical
centers and join the VA Nursing Academy this year. They are:

VA Facility School of Nursing
Charleston, S.C. Medical University of South
Carolina

Hines, Ill. Loyola University of
Chicago

Michigan Consortia University of Detroit
(Detroit, Saginaw, Mercy, and
Battle Creek, Ann Arbor) Saginaw Valley State
University

Oklahoma City, Okla. University of Oklahoma
Health Sciences Center

Providence, R.I. Rhode Island College

Tampa, Fla. University of South Florida


Partnerships already in the VA Nursing Academy include the VA medical
center in Gainesville, Fla., with the University of Florida; the VA
medical center in San Diego with San Diego State University; the VA
medical center in Salt Lake City with the University of Utah; and the VA
medical center in West Haven, Conn., with Fairfield University in
Connecticut.

VA expects to add several more nursing-school partnerships.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has reported that in
2006 more than 38,000 qualified applicants were turned away from
entry-level baccalaureate degree programs in nursing schools because of
insufficient numbers of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space and
clinical mentors. VA currently provides clinical education for
approximately 100,000 health professional trainees annually, including
students from more than 600 schools of nursing.

VA's "Enhancing Academic Partnerships" pilot program enables
competitively selected VA-nursing school partnerships to expand the
number of nursing faculty, enhance the professional and scholarly
development of nurses, increase student enrollment by about 1,000
students and promote innovations in nursing education.

Further information about the pilot program can be obtained from VA's
Office of Academic Affiliations web site at www.va.gov/oaa.