The Cal State Long Beach School of Nursing received a six-figure Song-Brown program grant earlier this month to support their growing family nurse practitioner (FNP) program.
The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) awarded CSULB with $170,000 after nursing department chair, Loucine Huckabay, wrote and defended the Song-Brown grant proposal to the OSHPD commission in Sacramento in October 2009, according to a press release. OSHPD awarded more than $1.7 million in grant money into 15 grants of varying amounts to universities throughout California with CSULB’s award as the highest amount.
According to Huckabay, the grant money will enable the students to take Spanish language medical courses. Although the majority of the FNP patients are Hispanic, most of them do not speak Spanish. Huckabay said there will be three Spanish language medical courses offered to provide better care for the Hispanic population.
“They will be able to communicate with the patient,” Huckabay said.
“Then they can interview them, asking where it hurts, how long it lasted, how severe is the pain. They can do a complete history and physical.”
Huckabay said the grant money would also be used to hire at least one new faculty member to search for underserved clinical areas and find clinical placements for the students. Another faculty member will also be hired to teach students in the clinical setting.
The rest of the grant funds will be used to purchase supplies, hire a secretary, and buy new technology needed for student and patient records, Huckabay said. Approximately $5,000 of the grant money will go to purchasing a program that will keep an electronic record of non
personal patient information for student and faculty records.
Huckabay said each student needs to complete a total of 1,630 clinical hours in which they have taken care of a variety of patients with certain medical conditions in order to qualify to take the National Certification Examination. These records can also be used in preparing
their portfolios, which should be completed before graduating from the FNP Master’s degree program.
In the CSULB school of nursing’s FNP program, the students graduate with abilities similar to those of a physician.
“It is complete care beginning with taking a very detailed history … and making the diagnosis and making a prescription,” Huckabay said.
“They do just about everything a physician does only they have additional emphasis on patient education. They will refer complicated cases to a physician.”
Huckabay said most FNP students find their jobs in clinics and doctor’s offices after graduation. Some have also opted to open up their own clinics in the United States and other countries such as India. According to Huckabay, the program has close to 100 percent of their graduating students with job offers in the field.
One of the main criteria that OSHPD looks for in awarding grant money is the size of the FNP program that the university has. To be eligible for grants, an FNP program has to have more than 100 students. The CSULB School of nursing has 166, the largest in the state.
The program has six variations, two of which are year round, with graduations in
fall, spring and summer.
The nursing department has a total of 570 undergraduate and 325
graduate students, with an average of more than 300 students graduating per year. Due to the budget crisis, the nursing school has had to put a cap on their current enrollment.
Despite the cap, their enrollment has quadrupled since 2004.
The CSULB School of nursing has received grants of various sizes almost every year since its inception, the largest being a $15 million joint grant from Long Beach Memorial and CSULB in 2004.
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