Friday, April 18, 2025
4/18/2025
Nurse Faculty Loan Program - Project Abstract Address: University of Saint Francis – Fort Wayne Doermer 148 2701 Spring Street Fort Wayne, Indiana 46808-3939 Project Director: Megan Winegarden DNP, EdM, RN, CNE Phone Number: (260) 399-7700 ext. 8513 Fax Number: Not applicable Email: mwinegarden@sf.edu Website: https://www.sf.edu/ Funds Requested: $204,858 Funding Priority: Requested. The proposed project supports doctoral nursing students. The purpose of the University of Saint Francis – Fort Wayne Nurse Faculty Loan Project is to increase the number of qualified faculty by providing low-interest loans for individuals studying to be nurse faculty and loan cancellation for those who then go on to work as faculty. The University of Saint Francis is requesting a project budget of $204,858 with $182,096 as the federal capital contribution and $22,762 as the institutional capital contribution. Few providers and still fewer clinical preceptors exist for some medical specialties in northeast Indiana. This shortage is especially true for mental health providers, including psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners. Finding qualified mental health providers to serve as clinical preceptors and teach future nurse practitioners is extremely difficult. However, as the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program at the University of Saint Francis continues to grow and students graduate, the university will graduate, in part, its own future clinical preceptors and nursing faculty. The current mean age for full-time graduate nursing faculty the University of Saint Francis is 53. While the mean age of graduate nursing faculty at the university may be lower than the national average, the recent drop in the mean age of nursing faculty comes at a cost to the university. Three full-time graduate nursing faculty retired from teaching at the University of Saint Francis in 2023. While these positions were filled by very qualified and capable faculty, an additional four full-time graduate nursing faculty, plus the Graduate Nursing Program Director at the University of Saint Francis, plan to retire within the next two years. The graduate nursing program will lose eight seasoned faculty members within three years, and these retiring graduate nursing faculty need to be replaced soon. A lack of clinical preceptorships exists in the northeastern Indiana target market. The University of Saint Francis has many partnering clinical sites, but each site and its preceptor takes only one or two DNP students at a time. As the university’s DNP program grows, so do placement and clinical preceptorship needs. Additionally, most clinical preceptors for DNP students are graduates of the DNP program at the University of Saint Francis. Graduating well-educated DNPs from the university’s program to become clinical preceptors and/or nursing faculty works best for creating more faculty and preceptors to work with and educate future DNP students at the University of Saint Francis and elsewhere. The target population for the proposed project is rural and other medically underserved residents of seven northeastern Indiana counties. The target market counties and populations are (1) Adams [35,961], (2) Allen [388,608], (3) DeKalb [43,333], (4) Huntington [36,717], (5) Noble [47,227], (6) Wells [28,197], and (7) Whitley [34,430] according to the US Census Bureau. The total population in the 2,856-square-mile, largely agricultural-based target market is 614,473, with 63.2% residing in Allen County. The University of Saint Francis will provide loans to eight qualified students pursuing a DNP degree and plan to become nurse faculty upon graduation. Please note that the University of Saint Francis – Fort Wayne Nurse Faculty Loan Project qualifies as funding priority. Loans will be available only to students pursuing a DNP degree.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).