BALTIMORE, Maryland – (October 16, 2018) – Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) Secretary Dr. James D. Fielder announced that $885,000 was awarded to 134 Maryland nursing faculty members in an ongoing effort to recruit, retain, and assist in the development of new nurse faculty in Maryland.
Forty-three new recipients of the New Nursing Faculty Fellowship (NNFF) will receive $20,000, which will be disbursed over a three-year period. The new recipients will receive $10,000 this year and $5,000 each consecutive year. In addition, ninety-one previously awarded nurse faculty received their 2nd or 3rd year disbursement, at $5,000 each, based on continued full time employment in good standing.
“Each one of these $885,000 dollars is an investment in our economy and in the future of our healthcare system,” Secretary Fielder said. “Maryland has been successful in meeting the needs of nurses and nursing faculty for decades and we continue to respond to the need for not only more nurses, but highly trained and educated nurses to become the faculty of the future.”
While 13 percent of nurses hold a graduate degree, less than 1 percent have a doctoral degree. Nurses with doctorates are needed to teach future generations of nurses and to conduct research that becomes the basis for improvements in nursing science and practice. Research is showing a critical need for an increase in highly educated nurses and an improved education system to address the nursing shortage expected to impact the state by 2025 through implementation of the following goals:
· Increase the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80 percent by 2020;
· Double the number of nurses with a doctorate by 2020;
· Ensure that nurses engage in lifelong learning; and
· Build an infrastructure for the collection and analysis of inter-professional data.
The Deans and Directors of Nursing Programs at eleven Maryland universities and nine community colleges recognized and nominated nurse faculty for these awards. This is an annual process instituted in 2005, with new nominations due every August. The program is recognized as effective in the retention of new nurse faculty. They are evaluated at three-years of employment where findings indicate 91 percent of the NNFF remain employed full time at a Maryland nursing program.
The Fiscal Year 2019 Nurse Support Program II (NSP II) New Nursing Faculty Fellowships (NNFF) are administered by MHEC and were approved for funding by the Maryland Higher Education Commission, administrator for the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC). The Nurse Support Program is funded by HSCRC and administered by MHEC. Over the years, the Nurse Support Program, both NSP I and NSP II (originally Nurse Education Support Program) has been expanded to encourage new and innovative approaches to address the challenges and demands facing nursing.
