Nursing School to receive $1M from geriatrics corp.

The School of Nursing is set to receive a $1 million donation that will in part be used to fund student scholarships over the next four years.

Beverly Enterprises Inc. -- which owns several geriatric care facilities throughout the country -- is establishing the Penn-Beverly Partnership Fund for the scholarships.

William R. Floyd -- chairman, president and chief executive officer of Beverly -- said he hopes that the scholarships will encourage students to work in the geriatric field.

"We are focused constantly on how to improve the quality of care in our facilities, and there is a shortage of qualified nurses today, and I hope that through the scholarship program, we will attract Nursing students to Beverly Enterprises [and] to the long-term care industry," the Penn alumnus said.

The scholarship will loan money to qualified students and may dismiss these loans if students agree to work for Beverly Enterprises after graduation. More specific details have yet to be worked out, according to Nursing officials.

In addition to funding scholarships, the partnership plans to foster a continued relationship between Nursing students at Penn and nurses at Beverly Enterprises.

This will include students performing their clinical work at Beverly's nursing facilities, and organizers said the program will hopefully foster a support network or mentor relationship between students and those who graduated from the program.

Faculty members who specialize in the field of geriatric care were excited at the prospects that the donation will afford to the School of Nursing programs.

"I think this is an absolutely phenomenal gift ... . It's always enormously beneficial when someone makes a scholarship gift to the school," said Neville Strumpf, director of the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at Penn.

"It's even better when it gets focused on geriatrics, because that's not necessarily a field that attracts scholarship money, and we really need to recruit people into the field of geriatrics since the population is getting older," she added.

Nursing Dean Afaf Meleis was thrilled by the announcement of the donation.

"We are grateful for the generosity that Beverly has shown with its gift, and we are delighted that students will now have the opportunity to learn more about caring for elderly people," she said in a press release Wednesday. "Our hope is that the Penn-Beverly Partnership will encourage more of our students to pursue a career in geriatric nursing."

Floyd added that he hopes the Penn-Beverly scholarship program is the first step in a lasting relationship.

"Penn has a tremendous reputation [for] its Nursing School. They have a huge focus on geriatric care, and I hope that the scholarship grant will be a win-win for both the Penn School of Nursing as well as Beverly Enterprises."

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