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The Department of Nursing, Jefferson College of Health Professions, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, in collaboration with the College of New Jersey, Ewing, and the University of Delaware, Newark, recently received a grant to form a Neonatal Education Consortium to address the shortage of culturally diverse neonatal nurse practitioners and the high infant mortality rate in the tri-state area. The Department of Health and Human Services/Health Research and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Nursing, funded the program for a total of $650,997 over three years.

The Consortium was developed in response to a shortage of Neonatal Nurse Practitioners (NNPs) and Master of Science in Nursing programs for NNPs in the tri-state region. A Neonatal Nurse Practitioner is a registered nurse who is an experienced neonatal nurse and has obtained a master’s degree as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. There are a small number of NNP programs nationwide, and none in Delaware or New Jersey.

The infant mortality rate among minority populations and in underserved areas of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware is two to three times the national average of 7.2/1000 births. The overall goal of the Neonatal Education Consortium is education and training of NNPs in response to an expressed community need for increasing the number of culturally competent and sensitive NNPs who will promote health and prevent disease among women, infants and children in rural and urban areas of the three states.

“This grant is important because it will prepare NNPs to practice in a region that is striving to improve health care services and outcomes for mothers and infants,” said Mary Schaal, R.N., Ed.D., professor and chair of the Department of Nursing at Jefferson College of Health Professions (JCHP) at Thomas Jefferson University. “With three schools participating in this much-needed program, we can quickly increase the number of NNPs throughout all three states. It is my hope that as NNPs graduate and practice where they are needed, we will quickly begin to see a reduction in the infant mortality rate in the tri-state area.”

Jefferson established a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner program in 2003 and graduated the first NNP in August 2004. The program was conceived when neonatologist Jay S. Greenspan, MD, professor and vice chairman, Department of Pediatrics, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, approached the JCHP Department of Nursing with a concern.

“Dr. Greenspan told us that there was an insufficient number of NNPs to meet the needs of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and in the region,” explained Dr. Schaal. “He suggested that we collaborate to offer an NNP program as a way to solve that problem.” Dr. Greenspan proposed that Jefferson establish a NNP program, and he promised support from the Division of Neonatology at Jefferson Medical College.

Around the same time, Christiana Hospital contacted the University of Delaware about developing a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner program there. Rather than develop a new program, the University of Delaware contacted JCHP and proposed a collaboration.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Jefferson in the education of NNPs,” shares Betty Paulanka, R.N., Ed.D., dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Delaware. “This partnership will help us to meet a critical need for advanced practice nurses in Delaware. This need could not be met without sharing resources with Jefferson’s nursing faculty.”

After Jefferson and the University of Delaware agreed to work together, they invited the College of New Jersey to join them in establishing the Neonatal Education Consortium. The Consortium is designed to meet three overall goals: improve health-care delivery to underserved populations, educate a diverse and culturally competent health-care force, and provide health care for high-risk children.

“The Medical College’s Neonatal Division, through Dr. Greenspan, collaborated with JCHP faculty to design the curriculum,” shares Mary Bowen, CRNP, DNS, J.D., CNAA, associate professor, vice chair and director of the Graduate Program in the JCHP Department of Nursing and the Principal Investigator of the project. She added that the curriculum meets National Association of Neonatal Nurses and National Certification Corporation (NCC) competencies for NNPs. The program also meets the eligibility criteria for NCC’s Neonatal Nurse Practitioner examination.

“We hope to have five to 10 new NNP students each year,” said Dr. Bowen. “Full-time students can complete the program in 15 months, and part-time students can take two to four years.”

Ksenia Zukowsky, CRNP, Ph.D., assistant professor and coordinator of JCHP’s Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Program, is the Neonatal Education Consortium project director. She will manage the day-to-day operations of the program, meeting with the site coordinators at each school, recruiting students and marketing the program.

The consortium will focus on recruiting underrepresented minority applicant pools in an effort to improve patient access to a diverse, culturally competent and sensitive health professions work force. This effort builds on Jefferson’s highly successful IMPART (1997) and GEAR UP (2000) programs that fund articulation of minority and culturally diverse nursing students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Students from Jefferson, the College of New Jersey and the University of Delaware will take 21 graduate level credits at their home school. All students will then take the remaining 15 credits of clinical NNP courses at Jefferson. The school at which the student takes the majority of credits will award the degree.