Elms College Receives $1.1 Million Grant to Fund Haiti Nurse Education
CHICOPEE — Elms College has received a $1.1 million grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to continue its work of improving health outcomes in Haiti through nurse-faculty development.
In 2019, a unique partnership was established between the Elms College School of Nursing, the Episcopal University of Haiti School of Nursing (EUH), and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), with the goal of improving the health of the Haitian people. This initiative, the Haiti Nursing Continuing Education Program, was initially supported through a $750,000 grant from WKKF.
“We are thrilled that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has renewed its commitment to this important, life-saving work and has substantially increased its funding that will extend the program into the foreseeable future,” said Harry Dumay, president of Elms College.
This program is essential because most healthcare in Haiti is delivered by nurses, not doctors. Therefore, nursing faculty throughout Haiti need enhanced training to be better prepared to educate future Haitian nurses.
“Despite the pandemic and social unrest in Haiti, Elms’ Haiti Nursing Continuing Education Program has been successful largely due to its partnership with EUH, as well as its provision of technology to ensure student access to course materials,” said Ryan Jiha, program officer for Haiti at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “We are proud to support this excellent collaborative work and look forward to seeing it continue to improve healthcare across Haiti.”
This partnership brings together nurse faculty from across Haiti and uses a ‘train-the-trainer’ approach to instruct the faculty with leading-edge nursing skills. The instruction of the Haitian nurse faculty is led by nurse faculty at the Elms College School of Nursing.
The first two cohorts of nurse educators graduated through the program in May 2022 and earned certificates transferable into the master’s and bachelor’s degree-completion programs at the EUH School of Nursing.