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Nursing School to Receive $1M from Geriatrics
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By Olivia Bonner
April 02, 2004
The School of Nursing is set to receive a $1 million donation
that will in part be used to fund student scholarships over the
next four years.
Beverly Enterprises Inc. --
which owns several geriatric care facilities throughout the country
-- is establishing the Penn-Beverly Partnership Fund for the scholarships.
William R. Floyd -- chairman,
president and chief executive officer of Beverly -- said he hopes
that the scholarships will encourage students to work in the geriatric
field.
"We are focused constantly
on how to improve the quality of care in our facilities, and there
is a shortage of qualified nurses today, and I hope that through
the scholarship program, we will attract Nursing students to Beverly
Enterprises [and] to the long-term care industry," the Penn
alumnus said.
The scholarship will loan
money to qualified students and may dismiss these loans if students
agree to work for Beverly Enterprises after graduation. More specific
details have yet to be worked out, according to Nursing officials.
In addition to funding scholarships,
the partnership plans to foster a continued relationship between
Nursing students at Penn and nurses at Beverly Enterprises.
This will include students
performing their clinical work at Beverly's nursing facilities,
and organizers said the program will hopefully foster a support
network or mentor relationship between students and those who
graduated from the program.
Faculty members who specialize
in the field of geriatric care were excited at the prospects that
the donation will afford to the School of Nursing programs.
"I think this is an absolutely
phenomenal gift ... . It's always enormously beneficial when someone
makes a scholarship gift to the school," said Neville Strumpf,
director of the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence
at Penn.
"It's even better when
it gets focused on geriatrics, because that's not necessarily
a field that attracts scholarship money, and we really need to
recruit people into the field of geriatrics since the population
is getting older," she added.
Nursing Dean Afaf Meleis was
thrilled by the announcement of the donation.
"We are grateful for
the generosity that Beverly has shown with its gift, and we are
delighted that students will now have the opportunity to learn
more about caring for elderly people," she said in a press
release Wednesday. "Our hope is that the Penn-Beverly Partnership
will encourage more of our students to pursue a career in geriatric
nursing."
Floyd added that he hopes
the Penn-Beverly scholarship program is the first step in a lasting
relationship.
"Penn has a tremendous reputation [for]
its Nursing School. They have a huge focus on geriatric care,
and I hope that the scholarship grant will be a win-win for both
the Penn School of Nursing as well as Beverly Enterprises.
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