WestConn, Danbury Hospital Partner To Educate More Nurses

DANBURY — Danbury Hospital President and CEO Frank Kelly and Western Connecticut State University President James R. Roach have signed an historic agreement expected to help WestConn enroll and graduate more students from the university’s undergraduate nursing program.

With ongoing concerns about the nursing shortage in Connecticut and the need for faculty to train more nursing students, WestConn and Danbury Hospital formed a partnership to allow one of the hospital’s nurses to serve as faculty member in WestConn’s nursing department. Funded by a $150,000 grant from the state Department of Higher Education, the initiative is set to begin in January 2005 and run through December 2006. It is meant to help an additional 20 nurses, ten each academic year, earn their bachelor’s degrees.

Representatives of the university’s nursing faculty and the hospital’s nursing staff, along with area lawmakers state Sen David Cappiello and Rep Janice Giegler, were among those who attended the June 22 signing.

For more information, call the WestConn nursing department at 837-8556.