SWIFT

Prospective Candidates for Nurse Educator Training

General Information

The SWIFT Nurse Educator initiative was developed to help alleviate the nurse educator shortage in Wisconsin. In order to teach in any Wisconsin program preparing registered nurses, educators must have a minimum of a master's degree in nursing. This is a challenge for many Wisconsin nurses who are interested in teaching because it takes at least two years of full-time study to complete a master's degree, and many nurses have to obtain a baccalaureate degree in nursing before they can even enter graduate school to study for their master's.

A primary goal of SWIFT is to recruit 100 nurse educator candidates who will be substantially supported through their necessary additional education programs by their employers. We are enlisting health care employers throughout the state to provide significant partial tuition support plus paid time off to selected employees who are committed to serve as nurse educators once they obtain their master's degree in nursing. These employees will be expected to continue working for their employers for a period of time after completing their degrees, and they will also be expected to teach part-time in a local school of nursing. These work arrangements will vary, depending on available educator positions and whether arrangements for joint appointments exist between the health care employer and the local programs. All supporting employers must agree that their SWIFT Nurse Educator candidates will be available to teach part-time in a local school upon completion of their master's degrees.

Participating Master's Degree Programs

SWIFT candidates must enroll in a University of Wisconsin (UW) program to obtain their master's degree in nursing. Candidates who need a baccalaureate in nursing must complete this degree through the UW system BSN at HOME program before they are eligible to be accepted into a UW graduate program in nursing. Four UW campuses offer a master's degree in nursing - UW-Eau Claire, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, and UW-Oshkosh. Each school has a somewhat different menu of options for their master's degrees. All four UW programs offer advanced practice preparation as a clinical nurse specialist or nurse practitioner. Other areas of concentration for a master's in nursing include a role focus as an educator or administrator. Links to the four UW nursing graduate programs are found below. Summary tables describing the master's in nursing program at all four campuses are available. These tables, which are updated periodically, contain brief general descriptions of the UW master's programs, including approximate tuition costs and admission procedures. To view and/or download this information, click on the applicable table listing below.*

UW PROGRAM SUMMARIES

Program Summary Table

If you want additional up-to-date information about these master's programs, click on the applicable UW link listed below.

We also encourage you to contact the program advisors listed in the summary tables or the websites to obtain specific information about course content or typical semester workloads.

SWIFT PARTICIPATING EMPLOYERS Statewide Partners

There are six healthcare employers who are currently sponsoring SWIFT candidates to complete their master's degrees in nursing (listed below).

Aspirus Wausau Hospital in Wausau
Aurora Health Care System, All Regions
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, All Regions
Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee
Meriter Hospital in Madison
Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, Southeast Wisconsin

Additional employers in the Eau Claire, La Crosse, Madison and Milwaukee areas have indicated strong interest in participating in the SWIFT project but these employers have not yet recruited any nurse educator candidates.

If you are working for a Wisconsin healthcare employer not listed above and are interested in becoming a nurse educator by participating in the SWIFT project, please contact the project staff to discuss how this process can be facilitated. jaa5@uwm.edu & roberts5@uwm.edu

CANDIDATE SELECTION PROCESS

The selection of SWIFT candidates is a joint process between the sponsoring healthcare employers and the UW nursing programs. These participants developed a general process that is being used in the selection of all SWIFT candidates, as outlined below:

Employer communicates with employees regarding the opportunity to be selected as a SWIFT candidate and invites staff to apply
Employer refers candidates who meet initial screening criteria to the appropriate UW nursing program advisor to receive detailed academic program information and to be screened for program admission
UW program advisors communicate back to the employer regarding which candidates will likely be admitted into the program
Employer applies final screening criteria and selects candidates who will be sponsored , notifying both the SWIFT project staff and the UW program advisor of their final selections

In addition, each employer has developed criteria for selecting employees to be sponsored as SWIFT candidates. For specific information about these criteria, please contact your employer.

THE HEALTH PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION CERTIFICATE FOR ADVANCED PRACTICE NURSES

The SWIFT Initiative includes a second strategy for increasing the number of nurse educators in Wisconsin. There are many nurses in this state practicing as advanced practice nurses (APNs) who have master's degrees in nursing but who have had no coursework preparing them to be educators. The SWIFT initiative recruited 20 APNs throughout the state who wanted to become nurse educators. These nurses were provided full tuition grants to complete an online post-graduate Health Professional Education Certificate (HPEC) qualifying them to teach in statewide nursing programs. Candidates for this certificate were required to complete 5 three-credit courses in education, including courses specific to nursing education

Twenty APNs were funded to complete the HPEC certificate process, and 17 candidates will actually complete the coursework. Eleven candidates have completed their certificates and are teaching at least part-time in local nursing programs. The other six will be completing their certificates within the next several months.

Although there are no more SWIFT grant funds to support the HPEC certificate coursework, APNs who are interested in acquiring this certificate are encouraged to apply for admission to this program sponsored by the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and use their employer-based tuition reimbursement program to assist with the tuition costs.

To download the instructions and application for the Health Professional Education Certificate program, click on HPEC Application Document.

*If you are having problems opening the brochure(s), you will need to download Adobe Acrobat.