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Connell School of Nursing doctoral student Eileen F. Searle has been named a Jonas Scholar, thanks to a grant from the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare, matched by the Connell School’s own funds, to underwrite a scholarship for a doctoral nursing student. As a recipient of the Jonas Center grant, the Connell School of Nursing is part of a national effort to stem the nursing faculty shortage and prepare future nurses.
Searle joins nearly 600 future nurse educators and leaders at 110 schools supported by Jonas Center programs, the Jonas Nurse Leaders Scholars Program and Jonas Veterans Healthcare Program. These scholarships support nurses pursuing PhDs and DNPs, the terminal degrees in the field.
Searle is a primary care nurse practitioner, specializing in adult gerontology. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from Boston College, and earned a master of public health degree from Boston University’s School of Public Health. A clinical nurse at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, she pursues research interests in critical care surge capacity and providing comprehensive nursing care in austere conditions.
“Eileen is an innovative scholar and a rising star,” said CSON Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Kathy Hutchinson. “Eileen’s area of research, pandemic flu preparedness, is a priority area for interdisciplinary research in the US and internationally. She is raising key questions that no one else is asking and is often the only nursing voice at the table.”
“The mission of the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare, ‘to improve healthcare through nursing,’ is actualized through the support of doctoral students like me, as we journey to become nursing leaders and faculty members,” said Searle. “I am incredibly grateful for the generosity and support shown by Barbara and Donald Jonas.”
The Jonas Center, the leading philanthropic funder for nursing, is addressing a critical need for qualified faculty, evidenced by troubling data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing showing that 2013 saw the lowest enrollment increase in professional RN programs in the past five years.