Celebrating a Decade of Accomplishment: The 10th Anniversary of the BAGNC
This year, 2010, marks the 10th anniversary of the Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) initiative, and we’d like to offer our congratulations to the program’s leaders and its awardees. It has been a decade of remarkable achievement.
The Birth of an Initiative
The BAGNC Initiative began back in January 2000, when the Hartford Foundation held an invitational meeting to give experts and thought leaders an opportunity to discuss the major health care issues of older adults and to identify strategies to improve geriatric nursing care.
By the end of the meeting, two questions had emerged: (1) What were the critical issues in professional nursing that might affect the care of older adults? And (2) what challenges to improving care for older adults were most relevant and amenable to solutions by nursing schools and the Hartford Foundation? To find answers, the Foundation commissioned several papers.
This work led Hartford to formulate two top priorities that would frame a new initiative in nursing: creating centers of geriatric nursing excellence and increasing the number of gerontological nurse researchers. The Foundation’s commitment to these goals marked the birth of the BAGNC initiative.
Claire Fagin, PhD, RN, the original director of the BAGNC initiative and architect of the overall Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative, remarked at the time, “There is substantial evidence that investing in nursing produces a difference in practice. Influencing the largest segment of the health care workforce can bring changes in care in the hospital, nursing home, and community.”
From Then to Now
Since then, with over $47 million committed from the Hartford Foundation, the BAGNC program has significantly advanced the field of nursing. The current external evaluation of the Initiative conducted by Shoshanna Sofaer, PhD, at Baruch College documents.
that Hartford has supported 183 BAGNC pre- and postdoctoral nurse researchers working to improve the health care of older Americans. Their academic productivity has been nothing short of astounding. Here are some facts:
- 87 alumni hold faculty positions.
- Over half of alumni have served as an officer or chair of a governing board, advisory group, committee, or task force.
- Fourteen alumni have been editors of a journal or special issue.
- Alumni published over 700 articles, informing the field about issues in geriatric nursing and health care.
- BAGNC alumni received $56.7 million in grant support.
See the Hartford Foundation blog, HealthAGEnda, for more information about how the BAGNC program is transforming the careers of gerontological nurses.
The Foundation has also established nine Hartford Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, which are collectively advancing academic geriatric nursing capacity across the country. For example, the Hartford Center at the University of Minnesota created a program called Faculty Learning About Geriatrics (FLAG) to help prepare nursing faculty from Upper Midwest nursing programs to strengthen geriatric nursing within their institutions. The Center also works with tribal colleges of nursing to recruit and prepare nurses to care for older American Indians.
Moreover, the Hartford Center model is spreading. The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation has created a center, at the University of Oklahoma under the leadership of Lazelle Benefield, PhD, RN, a BAGNC alum.
Three major cross-Center projects have grown into free-standing programs: the Geriatric Nursing Leadership Academy, the Center for Nursing Excellence in Long-Term Care, and the Geropsychiatric Nursing Collaborative.
These numbers and examples are powerful, but they tell only part of the tale.
Equally important are the stories of all the nursing students who, as a result of coming into contact with a BAGNC nurse in a classroom, clinical setting, or conference, went on to develop the skills necessary to provide quality care to the most rapidly growing and perhaps most medically complex segment of our population—older adults. Over the past 10 years, BAGNC alumni have taught over 20,000 undergraduate students, as well as 3,297 graduate and 234 doctoral students.
All of this has been possible because of the dedicated and diligent leadership involved in this initiative. The Hartford Foundation is indebted to the BAGNC Directors─Dr. Claire Fagin (2000-2005) and Patricia Archbold, DNSc, RN (2005-current), who have tirelessly committed themselves to growing a nursing workforce to provide quality health care to our aging society, and to Patricia Franklin, MSN, RN, Program Manager, who for 9 years has set aside her passion for pediatric nursing to advocate on behalf of nursing care for older adults. The Hartford Foundation also recognizes the invaluable contributions of the nine Hartford Center Directors, Administrators, and staff; the BAGNC scholars, fellows, and alumni and their mentors; and our partners—The Atlantic Philanthropies, The MayDay Fund, the National Institute on Aging, and the American Academy of Nursing.
Everyone involved should be proud of how our work is advancing the field of nursing and improving health care for older adults.
