Date: 6/23/08
Contact: Eric Jome
A professor from Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University is part of an Illinois delegation attending a national conference this month on combating the nursing shortage and expanding nursing education capacity.
Brenda Recchia Jeffers, director of graduate programs, research and scholarly activities at Mennonite College of Nursing, is one of 10 nursing educators, workforce development representatives and policymakers from Illinois attending the national Nursing Education Capacity Summit in Arlington, Virginia, June 26-27. Illinois will be one of 18 states represented at the conference.
The Nursing Education Capacity Summit will engage participants in identifying best practices and developing strategies for nursing schools to increase the number of students they educate. Focus areas will be strategic partnerships and resource alignment, state policy and regulation, increasing faculty capacity and education redesign. The two-day summit is hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Center to Champion Nursing in America and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.
Jeffers is attending the conference as a representative of Partners in Nursing of Central Illinois (PIN of CI), an innovative regional partnership focused on addressing the local demand for nurses through regional retention, faculty development and an emphasis on caring for aging adults. PIN of CI is led by the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation (IPCF) and Mennonite College of Nursing and consists of a number of other regional education, health care and economic development organizations. Within the partnership, Donna Hartweg, director of Illinois Wesleyan’s School of Nursing, and Kelli Hill, PIN of CI director, have been instrumental in bringing together pertinent information on nursing education capacity issues in Central Illinois.
“Expanding nursing education capacity is a state priority,” said Brenda Recchia Jeffers, director of graduate programs, research and scholarly activities at Mennonite College of Nursing, “The summit provides an opportunity to share our successes with others across the country and provides a forum to learn about the innovative strategies used to increase education capacity in other states. Mennonite College of Nursing’s representation on Team Illinois at the national Nursing Education Capacity Summit is a wonderful honor and opportunity for both the college and our regional partners.”
