The Observer

Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: News

Nursing students Emily Hop, Katie Caddle, and Roseann Bertone are shown teaching health education to a fourth grade class in rural Kentucky as part of their capstone project. The recently allocated federal stimulus grants will allow other nursing students to explore similar opportunities. [Click to enlarge]

Sophomore nursing student Jill Belsan is one of many who will benefit from the federal grants. These funds awarded to the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing are only a small portion of more than $49 million awarded to CWRU this year through Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. [Click to enlarge]

A bit of good news during times of economic crisis: the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing has received $3.7 million in federal stimulus grants, money to be divided among various research projects and scholarship programs that will benefit both the school and its students.

The school learned of its initial awards in August, and by the end of September saw a total of six projects or programs receive money from the federal government. Four of these are research projects, while two of the grants support tuition for student education. The faculty has been excited and is very pleased with the numbers.

"It was great when the good news came in," said Dr. Shirley Moore, the school's associate dean of research. "We have a spirit of working together and thus when any one person gets their grant, it benefits us all and we celebrate together."

Each project's allocation of money was predetermined by its application, she said. This was true of the nursing school as well as other schools within the University.

These new funds are only a small portion of more than $49 million awarded to CWRU this year through Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as ARRA. The greatest part of this money has gone to the Case School of Medicine, but the nursing school's faculty and staff are happy to have received anything.

"The stimulus awards represent that the hard work of our dynamic faculty and staff is unique, relevant, and, most of all, needed," said May Wykle, dean of the nursing school.

There is a sense of validation here. "It was a highly competitive process with review from National Institutes of Health," said Dr. Moore. The candidates for the stimulus money were required to produce extensive proposals in a brief period of six weeks. Candidates then submitted the proposals to numerous federal funders.

The institutes and federal funders of which she speaks are varied and include the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities; the National Institute of Nursing Research; the aforementioned ARRA; the National Institute of Health; and the Health Resources and Services Administration. Not surprisingly, The National Institute of Nursing Research contributed the greatest amount to the nursing school: $1,558,371.

While Case is generally considered well-endowed, grant money like this is critically necessary to the University if it hopes to pursue relevant research. "Ongoing research in a university promotes the environment of new discovery and greater understanding of how the world can be better," said Dr. Moore. She also noted that the University "continue[s] to be at the forefront of creating new knowledge to improve health care for patients across the lifespan."

And indeed, almost all of the grant projects that received funding will focus on research which seeks to improve the quality of life for patients. These projects include the inception of a new program for electronic self-management of chronic illnesses, research of self-management involving disabled persons, and research into the benefits of activity in critically ill patients.

The highest-rewarded project is the ambitious creation of a center for the ongoing research of end-of-life science; it received $1.2 million.

Though the clear focus of the funding is research, Dr. Moore feels even students will be able to gain something from the new endowment. "One of the projects is support for minority students," she said. "We also expect that many undergraduates will have opportunities to be part of the research projects (usually with paid opportunities)."

Some of the grant money will even go directly to a scholarship program for students who are disadvantaged geographically or economically. Yet this program received the most limited funding of all six-just $18,896, a relative pittance compared to some of the other research-oriented endeavors.

But such is the nature of an institution like Case, whose status as the premier research university in Ohio allows it to draw more stimulus money than almost any other school in the state.

Moore defended the importance of both grants and research. "Our mission as a University (and as a school within the University) is to discover new knowledge," she said. "As a University (and school), we are dependent on research dollars to support the University in all its missions - education, research and service to the community. The research dollars help to meet all of these missions. These monies are necessary to support not only research, but education monies (tuition) for students as well."

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