Social & Community

UAB School of Nursing – A Focus on Caring for Veterans

With the number of U.S. veterans currently at 24.5 million and steadily rising, caring for the unique healthcare needs of this distinguished group of Americans has gained renewed focus.

The UAB School of Nursing is leading the way in this important mission by recently being named a Veterans Affairs (VA) Nursing Academy — a prestigious distinction it shares with only 14 other schools of nursing nationwide. As part of this new designation, the UAB School of Nursing and the Birmingham VA Medical Center will work together in training compassionate, highly educated nurses to provide quality care to the nation’s veterans. The partnership will also expand learning opportunities for students and provide funding for faculty development.

“The purpose of the VA Nursing Academy is to expand the number of nurses receiving specialized, clinical education in caring for this special population,” says UAB School of Nursing Dean Doreen Harper, PhD. “Alabama has one of the highest percentages of individuals who serve in and return home from military service. This is a critically important population to be served in our state.”

A hallmark of the program is the specialized education and hands-on, clinical training opportunities it gives nurses in caring for veterans’ unique healthcare needs. The program will provide for 20 additional students to be admitted to the school of nursing within the VA Academy each year as VA Nurse Scholars.

These students will have all clinical experiences at the Birmingham VA Medical Center (with the exception of pediatrics and obstetrics). Also, the students will have a VA-based faculty member as their advisor/mentor and will have opportunity to be hired at the Birmingham VA Medical Center as student nurse technicians after first-semester courses have been successfully completed.

“This program is so unique because it provides exceptional, specialized educational and clinical opportunities for students and faculty in caring for our veterans — a group that deserves the highest quality of care we can offer,” says Dr. Harper.