Dr. Joyce Shea Awarded $1.65 Million for Nursing Programs | Press Releases

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (June 22, 2016) — Fairfield University, Marion Peckam Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies’ Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Associate Professor, Joyce Shea, DNSc, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, has been awarded two grants totaling $1.65 million. The first grant will provide coordinated clinical practicums for Egan School of Nursing students who are completing either a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree. The program will build on the School’s partnership with Community Health Center, Inc., an organization that delivers primary health care to over 130,000 underserved clients. The second grant will provide an effective educational curriculum to prepare students, especially those from educationally or economically disadvantaged backgrounds, to practice as primary care Nurse Practitioners in underserved communities.

“Dr. Shea has shown exceptional leadership over Egan's graduate program over the past two years and we are very lucky to have her in this position. The two grants she was awarded will provide continued opportunities for our graduate students to participate in state-of-the-art educational experiences and effectively position advanced practice nurses as leaders in the healthcare system of the future,” said Meredith Wallace Kazer, PhD, APRN, FAAN, Dean and Professor, Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies.

The first, and largest grant, funded for $1.3 million over the next three years, is an Advanced Nursing Education award provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The title of the project is Education for the Delivery of Integrated Care Today (EDICT ) which will focus on providing unique clinical experiences for pairs of our Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner students that support the development of skills and knowledge in the delivery of effective integrated primary and behavioral health care. We will be expanding our partnership with Community Health Center, Inc., to establish these clinical experiences. There are no existing models for educating practitioners of the future in the best practices of integrated care, although most of the current US healthcare system is incorporating these approaches to care.

The second grant is a one-year Advanced Education Nursing Traineeship award for $349,994, also provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). That project is entitled Primary-care Outcome Valued Initiative for Delivery of Education (PROVIDE) , and it continues 11 years of consecutive funding for the Egan School of Nursing that allows Fairfield University to provide tuition assistance for eligible Nurse Practitioner students in either the MSN or DNP program. Students who receive tuition support through this grant complete clinical experiences that focus on improving health outcomes for the medically underserved residing in low-income, urban areas in southwestern Connecticut. Without this support, many of our students would be unable to continue in the program, ultimately resulting in fewer primary care providers for this area.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is the primary Federal agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services committed to improving health “and achieving health equity through access to quality services, a skilled health workforce and innovative programs. HRSA's programs provide health care to people who are geographically isolated, economically or medically vulnerable.”

Fairfield University is a Jesuit University, rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 36 states, 47 foreign countries, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are enrolled in the University’s five schools. In the spirit of rigorous and sympathetic inquiry into all dimensions of human experience, Fairfield welcomes students from diverse backgrounds to share ideas and engage in open conversations. The University is located in the heart of a region where the future takes shape, on a stunning campus on the Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City.