DETROIT, July 2007 – The Wayne State University College of Nursing has been awarded a three-year, $995,000 federal training grant to offer two Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) programs and its Neonatal Nurse Practitioner program to nurses across the state as a means to increase access to care for critically ill infants and children in Michigan.

The grant, from the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration, will allow the WSU College of Nursing to develop the state’s only functioning pediatric acute/critical care nurse practitioner program as a complement to its well established primary care pediatric and neonatal nurse practitioner programs.

Using a variety of state-of-the-art distance learning methods, including teleconferencing, video streaming, podcasting and online discussions, coupled with intensive onsite learning sessions, nurses will be able to access these essential graduate programs at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Marquette General Hospital and Covenant HealthCare in Saginaw without having to leave their home communities.

“Particularly in these difficult economic times, nurses are unable to leave their homes and their jobs to pursue graduate education.” notes Dr. Linda Lewandowski, WSU College of Nursing Assistant Dean for Family, Community, and Mental Health and Program Director for the grant. “Yet in Michigan we have only about one-third the number of nurse practitioners we need.

“Wayne State has the only Neonatal Nurse Practitioner program in Michigan, and we will have the only active Pediatric Acute/Critical Care NP program. We feel a responsibility to help address the health care needs of Michigan’s infants and children with chronic and/or serious illnesses.”

In addition to an existing partnership between the College and Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, other distance learning sites may be added at a later time.

Michigan ranks first in the nation in the incidence of preventable chronic disease, and its infant mortality rate continues to be higher than the national average. Because Michigan has been affected by high unemployment and a struggling economy, access to preventive health care and early intervention is not available to all children. This grant will help address workforce as well as health care needs by providing culturally sensitive, family-centered care to infants and children with primary care and complex health care needs, many of whom live in medically underserved areas that will be targeted by these programs.