San Diego State School of Nursing Awarded Grant

In an effort to help expand enrollment in nursing programs and attract students to the nursing profession more than $3 million in grant money was made available this year by the Song-Brown Act, a law that passed in 1973 to ensure the annual funding and expansion of the state health care training programs. Governor Schwarzenegger awarded just 16 California Colleges with grants, SDSU being among one. San Diego State School of nursing was given $125,000, which is the highest possible for special projects funding. The money will go toward developing more efficient courses and creating innovative nurse educator programs said the School's Nursing Director.

California faces a huge nursing shortage crisis and is trying to focus on reforming its broken health care system. They lack the nursing workforce to adequately meet state healthcare needs and even fall further behind in having a sufficient number of nurses with a Masters in Nursing. SDSU is looking to allocate this newfound wealth towards developing models that would be more efficient for educating greater number of nursing students. Also, developing more efficient education distribution at the graduate level and providing an environment where faculty can learn new techniques as a way to extend their teaching capabilities.

Governor Schwarzenegger hopes the grant money will increase nursing school opportunities, particularly in medically under-served communities, and improve the training of nurses so they can provide the highest quality of care. Whatever the hopes I know one thing is sure: the nursing shortage crisis continues...