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Evercare Pledges Second Annual $100,000 Commitment to the John A. Hartford Foundation Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence

Posted on: Monday, 29 October 2007, 09:00 CDT

Evercare today announced it would donate $100,000 to the John A. Hartford Foundation Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence (CGNE) through its Evercare ScholarsTM Program for the second straight year, underscoring its commitment to the future leaders in geriatric nursing care. The funding will provide scholarships to graduate nursing students at five schools in addition to grants for geriatric-focused educational programs at two new Centers at the University of Minnesota and Arizona State University.

The Evercare Scholars Program supports the educational development of future leaders in the field of long-term care nursing. The goals of the program are to increase nurses' ability to bring innovation and quality into health care, advance the nursing profession and expand the role of nurses in helping to shape policy to improve our health system. Combined with last year's funding, Evercare has committed $200,000 to help to fund the education of nearly a dozen graduate nursing students. Evercare is one of the nation's largest health care coordination programs focused on people who are older, have long-term or advanced illness or have disabilities.

The need for geriatric nurses is projected to skyrocket as the number of Americans age 65 and older will double to 71 million by the year 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. At the same time, by 2020, the nation is expected to face a shortage of 1 million nurses, according to Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), while fewer than 1% of practicing nurses today are certified in geriatrics, according to The John A. Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University.

"We are excited to team up with the Hartford Foundation again to help advance the nursing profession. The Evercare Scholars are poised to enter the field of geriatric nursing with the education necessary to help make a significant impact on our health care system," says Patricia A. Kappas-Larson, MPH, APRN-BC, senior vice president, Public Affairs and Community Relations at Evercare. "By investing in the field's educational resources, we hope to encourage a new generation of students to pursue a nursing degree with a geriatric focus."

"During the last decade, the John A. Hartford Foundation has made significant investments to improve the quality of nursing education in order to better care for the growing number of older adults," said Corinne Rieder, EdD, executive director of the Foundation. "We are pleased to collaborate with Evercare to build the cadre of critically needed nursing leaders who can help support systemic changes in long-term care."

For the 2007-2008 academic year, Evercare will award, through the Hartford Foundation's CGNEs, five, $12,000 scholarships to graduate nursing students whose course of study includes learning about ways to improve health care delivered in long-term-care settings. In addition to tuition assistance, the scholarship recipients are also regularly brought together during their scholarship year to share their experiences, knowledge and research. The five CGNEs-- which were established in 2000 as part of the Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative (HGNI) -- participating in the scholarship program are:

Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Nursing

University of California San Francisco School of Nursing

University of Iowa College of Nursing

University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

Evercare will also be donating $20,000 each to the Arizona State University College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and the University of Minnesota College of Nursing, to help establish CGNEs at each school. The centers will be committed to educating graduate students with a focus on geriatric care and also retaining and recruiting outstanding geriatric nursing faculty.

At the heart of Evercare's health plans and services are Nurse Practitioners and Care Managers who coordinate or deliver personalized, compassionate care and help ensure effective integration of treatments. These trusted partners help guide members through the maze of health care services for enhanced health outcomes that give families peace of mind. Evercare employs nearly 800 Nurse Practitioners and 500 Care Managers in 38 states.

About Evercare

Evercare, one of the nation's largest care health coordination programs, helps improve health outcomes for people with long-term or advanced illness, who are older, or have disabilities. Founded in 1987, Evercare today serves more than 150,000 people nationwide through Medicare. Medicaid and private-pay health plans, programs and services -- from health plans for people in the community and skilled nursing settings, to caregiver support and hospice care.

Evercare is part of Ovations, a division of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) dedicated to the health care needs of Americans over age 50. For more information about Evercare, call 1-888-834-3721 (TTY 1-888-685-8480) or visit EvercareHealthPlans.com.

About the Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative (HGNI) and John A. Hartford Foundation

Supported by more than $67 million in grants to date from the Foundation, the Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative is a unique, multi-faceted initiative focused on the enhancement of the care of older adults through innovations in nursing practice, education, research, leadership and policy. In partnership with the nation's nursing schools and a variety of health care organizations and systems, this dynamic, national initiative is confronting the challenges associated with an aging patient population by:

Shaping nursing practice to best meet the health care needs of older adults;

Enhancing professional education to ensure all nurses are prepared to treat older patients;

Promoting research needed to guide the care and promote the health of older people;

Developing leadership in academic and professional settings; and

Demonstrating nursing's commitment to enacting public policy that improves older Americans' health care.

The John A Hartford Foundation was founded in 1929 and has been at the forefront of pioneering advances in medicine and health care and funding research and programs that have literally revolutionized medicine and shaped the delivery of health care. In the 1980s, the Foundation began to focus on aging and health and today is the country's largest private foundation focused solely on aging and health.

Source: Business Wire

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