Sacred Heart University's nursing school receives $2.6 million grant

By Phil Hall / phall@westfairinc.com

Sacred Heart University’s Dr. Susan L. Davis R.N., & Richard J. Henley College of Nursing (DHCON) has received a $2.6 million federal grant to be used for expanding the number of primary care and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners available to work in medically underserved areas.

The grant was awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agency focused on improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable. The funds will provide financial aid to full- and part-time Sacred Heart

University students in an advanced nursing education program who are on track to becoming certified as primary care nurse practitioners or psychiatric nurse practitioners at the doctorate, master’s or post-master’s level.

The grant will enable the DHCON to provide up to $25,000 each to eight eligible full-time students and up to $15,000 each to 18 qualified part-time students annually for the next four years. To be eligible for the grant funds, students must have at least a 3.2 grade

Lecardo said of the effort that the award recognized. “I’ve been a nurse for 31 years and neuro is something I never thought that I’d be doing, but it’s about the process. I love to build and sustain processes because that’s truly what gives us the best care for our patients.”

“Sure, you can build a program,” Lecardo added, “but if there’s not sustainability and you don’t have buy-in from the organization it falls apart. The stroke program truly is accountable to everybody in the hospital. It starts with EMS, and maybe even earlier than that, with the community who have to be educated on the signs and symptoms of a stroke to call 911. Stroke is more time sensitive than any other 911 call because we only have certain timeframes when we can intervene.”

According to Lecardo, the advanced care which Norwalk and other hospitals have adopted have redefined what it means to be “lucky.”

“For some of those patients having large strokes, 15 years ago they wouldn’t have walked out of the hospital,” she said, noting that patients today now consistently not only survive once fatal strokes, but are able to take advantage of therapies that let them rejoin society with a minimal loss of function. Lucky used to mean ‘survive.’ Now lucky is “okay, let's see if we can get you out of here on your own two feet.” point average, along with their registered nurse license and a willingness to participate in training modules pertaining to pain management, cultural diversity and social determinants of health.

The university anticipates the project will increase enrollment in family nurse practitioner and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner programs. It also expects to see a growth in the quantity of diverse, disadvantaged and underrepresented students preparing to enter those fields.

“Each patient’s unique needs are important and may be shaped by their culture, ethnicity and socioeconomic status,” said Cynthia O’Sullivan, associate dean of academic affairs and global nursing at Sacred Heart University.

The HRSA grant is the third financial award that the DHCON received this year to date. In July, the school announced that 30 of its nursing students will have help completing their degrees thanks to a $150,000 William Ran- dolph Hearst Foundation grant that will finance the new Sustaining Hearts Scholarship for juniors and seniors pursuing their bachelor’s degrees in nursing. Each scholarship is $5,000 per student, and the foundation defined its mission as seeking to “identify and fund outstanding nonprofits to ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States can build healthy, productive and satisfying lives.”

In March, a $2.5 million grant was recieve from CT Health Horizons to support programs and students in the DHCON and the School of Social Work. CT Health Horizons is a collaborative partnership that includes Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, the Office of Workforce Strategy, multiple state agencies, the University of Connecticut, the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges and the Connecticut Hospital Association.

“We are humbled and blessed to be the recipient of this funding, which enables us to address key shortages in nursing,” said Karen Daley, DHCON’s dean. “We are grateful for the confidence the state has shown in our ability to make a major impact on our state’s health and wellness.”