Johnson & Johnson recently awarded the ETSU College of Nursing with a $22,000 grant, which will be used to strengthen the college’s existing partnership with the Tennessee Technology Center at Elizabethton.
The money will help recruit LPN graduates directly into the university’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program.
Dr. Priscilla Ramsey, project director and professor of adult nursing, said ETSU will use the grant to establish a recruitment center to be located within the TTC.
The center will be staffed part-time by a College of Nursing representative who will handle advisement and recruiting.
“We have a highly successful LPN-BSN completion program at ETSU that has already accepted 84 students, but we want to increase our enrollment in the number of TTC graduates,” Ramsey said.
“This completion offering allows for a seamless transition into the baccalaureate program and is built as a partnership with area health care agencies that fund all or part of the tuition for their employees who participate.”
Johnson & Johnson has become active in promoting career opportunities in nursing. They have done this through a $20 million national advertising and promotional campaign.
The initiative has included recruitment brochures, posters and videos for 20,000 high schools, as well as various scholarship funds and various grants.
Johnson & Johnson has also developed a Web site, discovernursing.com, and launched national advertising aimed at celebrating nurses and their contributions.
In addition to recruitment, Johnson & Johnson is also planning to research ways to retain nurses in hospitals.
According to the College of Nursing Web site, there will be opportunities for TTC students to work with BSN staff nurses at health care agencies that partner with ETSU, and this will allow the students to see how an advanced degree could help change the scope of their practice.
Ramsey said that the grant will also be used to hire tutors to assist the LPN students, and a part-time nursing student from ETSU’s graduate program will teach at the center at Elizabethton.

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