A generous grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation will help Linfield University continue to make nursing education more accessible in the years ahead. The foundation, the only one in the United States dedicated solely to improving the education of health professionals, agreed to provide the university with $180,808 over the next three years to help researchers from the Linfield-Good Samaritan School of Nursing identify barriers for students with disabilities – and help students overcome them.
Paul Smith, dean and professor, and Julie Fitzwater, associate dean and associate professor, are co-principal investigators for the grant. They are joined by collaborator Sari Platt, associate director of Learning Support Services.
As part of the study, the Linfield team will engage students with disabilities, clinical partners and nurses to explore barriers to success. These findings will aid them in creating a data-informed framework to develop training modules nursing schools can use to address accessibility in a variety of educational environments.
“We hope to achieve greater understanding of barriers to entering the profession related to disabilities,” Fitzwater said. “Through this work, we will strive to identify interventions to support nurses with disabilities to increase our workforce diversity.”
Linfield is one of six universities receiving the “Disability Inclusion in Nursing Grants Program to Advance Innovation Systems Approaches for Nursing Education and Practice” from the Macy Foundation.
“Creating inclusive and accessible environments in nursing education and practice is essential to advancing health equity and supporting the potential of all of our learners,” said Holly J. Humphrey, Macy Foundation president. “These six projects will identify strategies to promote inclusion for those with disabilities so that we may build learning environments and a nursing workforce that reflect and serve the diverse needs of all students and patients. The Macy Foundation is delighted to collaborate with the project leaders at local nursing schools alongside our exceptional Advisory Committee to achieve this vital goal.”
Announced Wednesday, the grant recipients are:
- John Hopkins School of Nursing
- Linfield University
- Pace University
- University of Massachusetts-Amherst
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- University of Houston
Each recipient will receive funding of up to $75,000 annually for three years to implement their projects. As part of the grant, each will advance inclusion, equity and accessibility for nursing students with disabilities. The projects emphasize co-creation with educators and learners, aiming to create lasting institutional change and set benchmarks for inclusivity in nursing education and practice. Support for this grants program was provided in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Linfield’s School of Nursing in located in Portland and offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. In its latest ranking, U.S. News & World Report recognized it as one of the “Best Undergraduate Nursing Programs.”
