Grand Valley nursing program benefits from state grant program

Grand Valley's Kirkhof College of Nursing received two state grants that will help increase the number of nurses in the workforce, an increasing national problem.

Grand Valley State University was one of 13 Michigan universities and community colleges that will receive more than $17 million in grants to accelerate training for nurses and other health care professionals. Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced the grant package, Governor's Michigan Opportunity Partnership, July 20 in Flint.

Phyllis Gendler, dean of the Kirkhof College of Nursing, said Grand Valley received $1.2 million in grants over a two-year period. By partnering with Spectrum Health, the grants will help:

Provide funding to develop an intense education program for practicing nurses who then will provide clinical instruction for students, and;

Implement an accelerated program for students with degrees in other fields to become nurses.

Gendler said about 30 percent of Grand Valley's nursing students have degrees in other fields. This would be the target group for the accelerated program, which likely would begin next summer. The accelerated program would repackage clinical components of the nursing program from five semesters to three.

The grants from the state are being made available with Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) funds.