Impact

Funding renewed for Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at Penn State, housed within the School of Nursing, has received additional funding from The John A. Hartford Foundation to continue its work for the next three years.

The three-year, $300,000 grant, effective Jan. 1, 2013, enables the Hartford Center to continue its mission of preparing geriatric nursing faculty for teaching careers in geographical areas of the greatest need.

Established in October 2007, the Hartford Center at Penn State is one of just eight National Hartford Centers and one of three in the eastern United States. In its first five years, the center graduated 14 master’s and doctoral students, and received more than $6.5 million in National Institutes of Health funding for geriatric nursing research projects.

The center is committed to ensuring the geriatric competence of the nursing workforce by increasing the number of geriatric nursing faculty who can teach at all levels of nursing education.

In response, the Hartford Center developed an online graduate certificate program in Geriatric Nursing Education, aimed at giving nurse educators the background to teach nurses the skills they need to work with elderly patients. Plans are also under way for an online postbaccalaureate certificate program in gerontology. Both programs will help nurses prepare to sit for the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Gerontological Nursing Certification exam.

“Through the generous support of the Hartford Foundation, the School of Nursing has been able to develop and deliver outstanding educational resources for nurses and other health care practitioners who live and practice in our rural communities,” Kolanowski said. “These interdisciplinary programs will ultimately improve the care older adults receive in medical centers, rehabilitation facilities, home health agencies and nursing homes.”

Last Updated May 18, 2015

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