Educating future nurses
AORN Foundation scholarships support nursing students and future nurse educators in the US and abroad
Education is essential to addressing the nursing shortage. Recognizing the need to support nursing education, the AORN Foundation Scholarship Programs offer scholarships each year for nursing students, as well as RNs earning their bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.
"With the critical nursing shortage and the cost of higher education, the AORN Foundation Board of Trustees knows it is of utmost importance to fund scholarships for students pursuing careers in nursing and for nurses advancing their professional careers," said Heidi Arsenault, Development Coordinator for the AORN Foundation.
For the 2007-2008 academic year the program awarded 90 scholarships, including scholarships to 34 nursing students, 24 BSN candidates, 30 MSN candidates and two PhD candidates. (View the list of recipients.)
Promoting nurse educators"Supporting nurses in earning their advanced degrees is just as important as supporting student nurses because nursing schools without enough instructors often have no choice but to turn away qualified applicants," stressed Connie Hammond, RN, BSN, CNOR, a perioperative nurse at James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa Bay, Fla.
Hammond is a past recipient of an AORN scholarship, which she used towards earning her Master's degree in Health Services Administration to move towards perioperative management. Because she is passionate about supporting future nurses, she is also pursuing a position as an instructor with the University of South Florida's College of Nursing to facilitate AORN's Periop 101: A Core Curriculum course.
She is also a member of AORN's Scholarship Committee and works closely with the AORN Foundation to review scholarship applications and support the AORN Scholarship Foundation in addressing the needs of applicants.
This year Hammond and members of her committee worked closely with the AORN Foundation to improve AORN's scholarship program and give more nurses and nursing students the opportunity to seek educational support from AORN.
Making it easier to applyOne important change is that scholarship applicants now have the option to apply online through Scholarship Program Administrators, Inc. "This simplifies, condenses and clarifies the process as a whole," AORN Foundation's Arsenault stressed.
For example, in previous years applicants had to fill out the application specific to the degree they sought. "If applicants applied for the wrong program they were automatically disqualified. Now, through our online process the applicant is asked a series of questions that help them find the scholarship that best meets their needs," she explained.
She adds that one of the biggest changes to AORN's scholarship application process is that applicants are now required to carry a "B average," rather than a minimum 3.0 grade point average. By changing this requirement, international students who are not measured by the same scale as students in the United States can now also apply for an AORN scholarship.
"The educational pursuits of international AORN members are just as important as those for US nurses," said Terri Goodman, RN, PhD, an active AORN member who has previously served on AORN's Scholarship Committee and is a leader in AORN's eChapter, which currently includes 300 international members.
Expanding educational opportunitiesThis year eChapter created a scholarship endowment to support eChapter members who are pursuing educational opportunities. It is one of 12 endowed scholarships currently established through AORN. "Facilitating chapter members' pursuit of education through this scholarship endowment is obviously a good investment of chapter funds," Goodman explained.
Like Hammond, Goodman is also passionate about supporting nursing education. At every level of her preoperative nursing career Goodman has found a way to teach and she is a proponent of advanced education for nursing professionals, she noted.
"It is through academic and continuing education that nurses expand and improve perioperative practice and enhance their nursing careers," she stressed.
Goodman hopes the new opportunities that AORN's revamped scholarship process provides will encourage more nurses to consider pursuing advanced education to support the future of the nursing profession.
""We need to assume the responsibility of training our own so we can ensure future generations have the knowledge and critical thinking skills unique to the nursing profession," she added.
Apply nowThe AORN Foundation is accepting scholarship applications for the 2008-2009 academic year through June 15, 2008. Learn more.
Members attending AORN's 2008 Congress in Anaheim, Calif., can also visit the AORN Foundation booth to learn more about applying for AORN scholarships.
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