Los Angeles Jewish Home's Annenberg School of Nursing One of the Only U.S. Senior-Care Facilities With School of Nursing Graduates First Group of Nurses to Help Ease Country's Shortage

The students matriculated at the new Annenberg School of Nursing, which offers a full-time program that aims to prepare students to pass the state-required exam for licensure. The intensive program engages students 40 hours per week in the classroom or at clinical sites, plus three hours of reading per day. All students received 500 hours of classroom instruction and 980 hours of clinical training at local hospitals.

"We're incredibly proud of this inaugural graduating group," said Molly Forrest, CEO/president of the Home. "Virtually all healthcare providers throughout the country are faced with an extraordinary challenge of making sure superbly trained nurses are on hand for an increasingly aging population. This helps ensure we're ready to do so."

Forrest also believes the establishment of the school of nursing on site at the Home provides wonderful career-development opportunities for its own staff members and for members of the community in which it operates.

One attractive feature of the program is financial incentives for its students. The total cost to educate each student in the program is $19,000. Through generous gifts received from the Annenberg Foundation, UniHealth Foundation, and private donors, students receive a $10,000 tuition scholarship, which is forgiven if they take a nursing job at the Home upon graduation and stay for at least two years.

Also available is no-interest scholarship assistance through the L.A. Jewish Free Loan Program sponsored in part by Jewish Home donors Saul and Joyce Brandman.

Heading the school is Marie Fagan, former director of nursing at American Career College and Casa Loma College. "These students who graduated have come from all over the world and have brought a world of promise with them to help solve one of our great needs -- providing wonderful nursing skills."

The nation's nursing shortage is particularly acute inCalifornia. According to the California Economic Development Department, the state is expected to be short more than 100,000 registered nurses and 25,000 licensed vocational nurses by 2010.

Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations inthe United States and globally through its headquarters inRadnor, Pennsylvania, and offices in Los Angeles, California. Its major program areas are education and youth development; arts, culture and humanities; civic, community and the environment; and health and human services. In addition, the Foundation operates a number of initiatives that expand and complement these program areas. The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving this goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.

Founded in 1912, the world-renowned Los Angeles Jewish Home is one of the foremost multi-level senior-living communities inthe United States and the largest single-source provider of senior housing inLos Angeles. In total, the Home annually serves more than 2,000 seniors through our extraordinary continuum of services. Each year, more than 1,500 women and men are cared for in-residence on two village campuses, with services including independent-living "Neighborhood Home" accommodations, residential care, skilled nursing care, acute psychiatric care, Alzheimer's disease and dementia care. Another 500 seniors are served through the Home's community-based programs, which includes Skirball Hospice and community clinics. The Home is a nonprofit organization that relies upon donations from individuals, corporations and foundations to continue its remarkable work. Further information regarding the Home can be found online at http://www.jha.org or by calling 818-757-4407.

SOURCE Los Angeles Jewish Home

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