The Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education has awarded $619,495 to five technical colleges to help address the growing nursing shortage. The funding will allow the campuses to expand their registered nursing programs.
Athens Technical College will expand its accelerated associate degree of nursing summer option program to Gwinnett Technical College in Lawrenceville. Columbus Technical College in Columbus, Northwestern Technical College in Rock Spring, Southwest Technical College in Thomasville and West Central Technical College in Waco also received funds to extend their programs and increase enrollments.
DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR: Sue K. Donaldson, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, has joined the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University as a distinguished professor of nursing and interdisciplinary science. She will hold joint appointments with the nursing school and the department of physiology in the Emory School of Medicine.
With a research background in physiology, nursing and patient care, Donaldson will lead the nursing school's initiative, "Transforming Nursing's Engagement in Science," as well as advance interdisciplinary training and research opportunities for nurses in the basic sciences.
Donaldson served as a full professor in the schools of nursing and medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
FACULTY FUNDING: The Medical Center of Central Georgia's commitment to fund faculty positions at local colleges and universities has topped $1 million in six years. The medical center in Macon gave an estimated $250,000 in 2006.
Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville received $90,734 for one full-time nursing faculty member and five adjunct instructors. Macon State College was given $125,000 for two nursing faculty members and one respiratory therapist, while Central Georgia Technical College in Macon used the gift of $30,000 for its orthopedic technologist program.
"MCCG's partnership gave credence to our nursing program and encouraged our Board of Regents to fund two additional nursing faculty, resulting in an enormous expansion," said Dr. Rebecca Corvey, director of Macon State College's nursing program. "Three years ago, we were only able to admit 50 nursing students once a year. Now we have tripled enrollment, expanding the nursing program to our Warner Robins campus, and doubled our respiratory therapy program's enrollment."
EMPLOYEE GIVING: DeKalb Medical Center employees recently awarded $9,400 in grants to eight organizations dedicated to community health and wellness. The employees donated to WHAT (Working, Healing, Achieving Together), the DeKalb Medical Center Foundation's employee-giving program.
Recipients for 2006 are the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Atlanta Hospital Hospitality House, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, DeKalb Rape Crisis Center, Friends of Disabled Adults and Children, Men Stopping Violence, Physicians' Care Clinic and Project Open Hand. DMC employees have given more than $2 million over the last 15 years to the DMC Foundation.
BREAST CANCER GRANT: The Greater Atlanta Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Emory University Cancer Genetics Program. The funding will help provide genetic testing and counseling for patients who are at high risk for hereditary breast cancer and who are uninsured, are underinsured or receive Medicaid.
The Cancer Genetics Program at Emory provides patients with comprehensive and current information about hereditary cancer risk and guidelines for cancer screening. To learn more, visit www.genetics.emory.edu.
NATIONAL OFFICE: Dr. Jay E. Berkelhamer, senior vice president, medical affairs at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, will take office as president of the American Academy of Pediatrics at the national conference this month in Atlanta.
The AAP is the nation's largest pediatric organization, with a membership of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists.
During his seven years as senior vice president at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Berkelhamer has helped lead the organization in being honored as one of the nation's top pediatric hospitals. In 2005, Child magazine named the facility one of the country's 10 best pediatric hospitals.
CLINIC AWARD: Outpatient Care Technology magazine has awarded its inaugural 2006 Outpatient Excellence Award for Oncology Centers to the Emory Clinic Department of Radiation Oncology. The award recognizes oncology centers for their clinical, financial and operational accomplishments .
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