In homage to International Nurses Day and the Year of the Nurse Educator, Health Carousel, LLC, the 17th largest healthcare staffing company in the US, has pledged $200,000 over the next three years to support a wide range of nurse training and education programs in the U.S. and around the world. This big, multi-year commitment is just a tiny part of the Health Carousel’s Light the Way project, which puts an emphasis on ethical hiring practices and the future of the nursing field.
Since its founding in 2004, Health Carousel has kept up its Light the Way project. This is where they put all their projects and programs supporting ethical hiring practices and the long-term health of nursing worldwide. On International Nurses Day in 2022, Light the Way will be happy to share news of new projects in the U.S. and abroad. Health Carousel’s Light the Way program is titled after Florence Nightingale, who started modern nursing. She was known as “The Lady with the Lamp” because she cared for injured soldiers at night while only using a low oil lamp for light.
Local and International Assistance
In the US, money from the fund has been set aside for Light the Way scholarships. Most of the winners of these scholarships will be nurses who want to get an advanced or graduate degree in nursing. Several professional and nationality-specific nursing groups in the U.S. are now being considered for taking care of the administrative tasks around how the awards will be given. Health Carousel already chose Chamberlain University as a preferred partner for nursing education this week.
Light the Way also gives money to projects worldwide that help nurses stay in their jobs. In the Philippines, the money will be used partly to fund scholarships for nurse educators with Ph.D.s. This will help boost the number of students in nursing programs and improve the quality of instruction. Money is also being set aside to open a nurse training lab in Uganda. This is being carried out with the assistance of the Uganda Nurse and Midwives Union.
Putting Education and Educators First
Health Carousel chose to give the money to increase the number of nurses who can go to school to help with the shortage of nurses in the U.S. and worldwide. For example, most nursing faculty members in the Philippines don’t have advanced training or education, which is why so few students can pass the country’s nurse license exam. There are still problems like this elsewhere in the world as well.
Health Carousel’s founder and board chair, Bill DeVille, said, “We’re making a big commitment, but it’s essential to help the nursing profession, particularly with the many problems that came up during the pandemic.” We have a tradition at Health Carousel of quietly recognizing those who invest in the future of nursing. Most people don’t know that since we opened in 2004, we’ve helped hundreds of nurses get their Master’s degrees in nursing. Many people who have won these awards now work as nursing teachers and leaders in the United States and other countries.”
Earl Dalton, Health Carousel’s Chief Nursing Officer, says that these projects directly affect patient care. “Health Carousel’s investment rails against dangerous trends in the industry that put patient care at risk,” says Dalton. “In particular, the number of highly trained nurses in the USA is dropping quickly, and the requirements of our growing number of older patients are getting harder to meet. Because of this, there is a widening divide between experience and complexity. Put simply, there aren’t enough nurses with a lot of experience to teach the newer ones. Health Carousel’s investments in graduate degrees and nursing schools are a good way to solve this problem.”
