Hospital Partnerships Competition (Two, three-year grants) 

Mancini, Mary E., The University of Texas at Arlington in partnership with Texas Health Resources (THR), The LEARN (Leveraging Existing Academic Resources in Nursing) Project: Experiential Learning Through a Synergistic Hospital-Based Accelerated BSN Program.  $577,287.  

LEARN proposes a 15- (versus 21-24) month BSN program that leverages existing faculty and hospital-based resources to overcome enrollment constraints (classroom size, faculty, clinical sites), impact graduation (work conflicts), and prolong hospital orientations (limited clinical exposure). Students (THR employees) will access course content at times, places, rates that meet learning needs and work demands (Pod-casts); complete clinicals supervised by THR nurses serving as faculty; and receive support from specially-prepared THR nurses acting as hospital-based facilitator/coaches. Evaluation of this structured academic-hospital partnership model will include comparison to traditional BSN outcomes and cost-benefit assessment from the perspective of students, employer, and School of Nursing.

Mayrand, Leslie M. and Halfmann, Sherry J., Angelo State University in partnership with Shannon Medical Center, San Angelo Community Medical Center, Brownwood Medical Center, and Scenic Mountain Medical Center, Transforming LVN-RN Education Through Hospital Partnerships. $1,270,897.

The LVN-RN transition model of education is antiquated, inefficient, & costly.   As a result 77,000+ LVNs in Texas remain virtually “untapped” in solving the RN shortage.  In partnership with four West Texas hospitals, ASU proposes the development and implementation of a new model of LVN-RN education including: (1) a 50% decrease in completion time; (2) didactic content delivered and evaluated through blending of online and printed study modules; (3) clinical experiences at place of employment; (4) paid release time by hospital employer: and (5) adoption of a LVN-RN competency transcript.  Evaluation will be done via NCLEX pass rates, satisfaction surveys, graduation data, and cost analyses.