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Innovative Scholarship Program Puts Nursing Students on Fast Track

Jeff Sano (NHS’09) was an IT analyst for Ford who dreamed of leaving the cubicle life behind to become an emergency room nurse – a role he acquired a taste for patrolling the ski hills of Michigan on his off hours.

Peace Corps volunteer Michelle Joffe (NHS’09) lived in an HIV/AIDS orphanage in Uganda, developing programs and providing hospice care. But she believed nursing skills would have allowed her to help even more.

Today, Sano and Joffe, both in their late 20s, are on their way to realizing their ambitions as Georgetown Scholars at Washington Hospital Center – a new scholarship program  designed for aspiring nurses from other fields.

The result of a multimillion partnership between Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies (NHS) and Washington Hospital Center, the program offers 80 percent tuition scholarships to students who make a three-year employment commitment to the Hospital Center upon graduation. Scholars enroll in Georgetown’s longstanding accelerated “second-degree” program, which allows college graduates who have a bachelor’s degree or higher in another field to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 16 months. They also have the option to apply to the Direct Entry to Advanced Practice Nursing Program so they can pursue a master’s in nursing while working at the Hospital Center.

The inaugural cohort of 20 scholars, including Sano and Joffe, will join the Hospital Center as salaried employees after graduating this December. All told, the partnership aims to turn out more than 200 new nurses in the coming decade.

Filling a Void

The Georgetown Scholars program was developed as one answer to the national nursing shortage, which, despite a temporary reprieve due to the recession, continues to be a vexing long-term problem. A recent study published in Health Affairs projected a shortfall of 260,000 registered nurses by 2025.

The partnership was also a way to meet mutual institutional goals. “We provide clinical instruction and space for students, while Georgetown offers a rigorous academic environment,” says Elizabeth Wykpisz, the Hospital Center’s senior vice president and chief nursing officer. “The end result is highly qualified nurses who come in having already worked in a real-world clinical setting.”

In addition, says Wykpisz, the scholarship program serves as an important pipeline for nurse leaders – baccalaureate-trained nurses who can assume case-manager and supervisory roles, as well as nurses with advanced practice degrees who can serve as nurse practitioners and educators.

NHS Nursing Department Interim Chair Sharon Radzyminski puts it another way: “We educate morally reflective nurse leaders who extend their evidence-based skill set to the front lines of health care.”

Life Experience Wanted

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and other industry experts, second-degree students like Sano and Joffe are prized by would-be employers for the perspectives and skills they bring from other experiences.

Sano, for example, has become known among his peers for his ability to talk to patients – a skill he has honed through years of helping injured skiers.

“Because I’ve been doing ski patrol since I was 16, I’ve had lots of practice working with people who need medical attention,” says Sano. “I’ve learned how to be soothing and to tell them exactly what I’m doing as I’m doing it.”

As a former computer engineer, Sano is also curious to learn more about the field of nursing informatics, which involves using information systems to improve health outcomes.

For Joffe, who has a master’s in public health, the parallel between Peace Corps work and nursing is the “offering of hope, kindness and compassion.” During her clinical rotations this has taken many forms – from helping a patient who hadn’t been out of bed in seven days walk down the hall to sitting with a terminal cancer patient who simply wanted to talk.

Other professions represented in the Georgetown Scholars’ ranks include social work, international development and accounting.

“I love the richness and maturity they bring,” says Wykpisz. “They come to this knowing they want to choose nursing, and they’re highly motivated.”

Funding an Education

To be sure, the 80 percent scholarship – the cost of which is borne equally by NHS and the Hospital Center – is a big draw for students who wouldn’t have otherwise attended Georgetown or launched their nursing careers in D.C.

“I would not have come to Georgetown without this scholarship,” says Joffe. “You basically have no money when you get back from the Peace Corps, and covering full tuition with loans would have been too much to handle.”

“The scholarship made it possible for me to survive in this town,” says Sano, who adds that having job security in a recession was an unexpected bonus.

Joffe notes that the scholarship’s appeal goes beyond money. For one, the Hospital Center is exactly the type of hospital she wants to work in – a Level One trauma center with patients from a wide range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

Another benefit is the relationship fostered between the scholars and their future workplace. “Our clinical instructors pave the way for us when we’re at the hospital, and even when we’re not there they keep up with how we’re doing and send us things for class like electrocardiogram notes and study guides,” she says. “It creates an environment where on my first day of work I’ll know where I’m going and how the hospital functions.”

Amy Poftak is director of alumni communications in Georgetown’s Office of Advancement.