Florida International University (FIU) Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences, (FIU NWCNHS) is answering the call to recruit and prepare nurses to care for the country’s military veterans with the launch of the Veteran Affairs (VA) Office of Academic Affiliation (OAA) Post-Baccalaureate Nurse Residency Program (PBNR) administered by Miami VA Healthcare System (“Miami VA”) in collaboration with the university. The nurse residency program is the first in the College’s and Miami VA’s respective histories, and promotes the Miami VA into an exclusive group of only 14 VA hospitals in the country to offer this specialized training program for nurses.
The residency program stems from $8.2 million in funding received from OAA to implement a federal education initiative to assist in providing an adequate supply of health personnel to the Nation that can address military health concerns. The Veterans Affairs Nursing Academic Partnership (VANAP) is illustrative of the VA commitment to fostering relationship between VA facilities and schools of nursing to leverage academic expertise and VA clinical resources. The College and the Miami VA Healthcare System were awarded VANAP in 2014, which it has rolled out in two phases.
The first phase involved creating a baccalaureate nursing curriculum addressing military-specific health issues and conditions. These include, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), suicide and other mental health issues, chemical exposure, major traumatic limb loss and rehabilitation. The PBNR represents the second phase, in which nurse training, recruitment and retention for the VA system are the primary objectives.