The Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence has awarded funding to the GNYHA Foundation to launch a program entitled, “Bridging the Gap: Linking Clinical Practice to Academia”—known as the “Gap Program.” The intent of this program is to develop a model that will alleviate the shortage of clinical nursing faculty and update the nursing curriculum to reflect the current challenges to the health care system. The program will have three phases—education, partnership development between nursing schools and hospitals, and evaluation.

During the first phase of the three-year program, GNYHA will replicate and expand upon the Nursing Preceptor/Clinical Faculty Development Education Program that it successfully completed in 2004. The program focuses on educating experienced nurses to become clinical adjunct faculty in order to address the shortage of qualified individuals for these positions. Nurses who complete this phase will then enter phase two, during which they will work through their individual hospitals to develop partnerships with academic nursing programs. The intent of forming these partnerships is to develop a “match initiative” that will be modeled after the current physician residency match program, in which students and hospital staff have the opportunity to interview each other and, through mutual acceptance, embark on clinical training at the selected hospital. The objective of developing a match program is to provide students with the opportunity to train in a hospital where they may wish to work after graduation, allow students to train with nurses who are currently in clinical practice, expand the number of hours of clinical experience, and familiarize the students with current hospital protocols and information technology systems.

GNYHA will be soliciting hospitals and nursing schools to participate in the partnership program. For additional information or to become a partner, contact Terri Straub at GNYHA. ¦