Jonas Center/ VA Partnership Agreement

By Brigadier General (Ret.) Bill Bester, Senior Advisor, Jonas Veterans Healthcare Program

November 14, 2016 marked a significant milestone in the ever-increasing impact of the Jonas Veterans Healthcare Program. On this date, a unique and critically important partnership was announced between the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) establishing a national network of nursing researchers, nurse educators and clinical nursing experts who are all professionally focused on improving upon the healthcare provided to our deserving veteran population.

This partnership will greatly enhance the ability of these two communities of veterans- focused doctorally-prepared nursing professionals to continually expand upon the needed research activities and evidence based practice models that will result in continual improvements in the quality of care we provide to our veterans. The partnership will accomplish this goal by:

1. Developing a network of VA Jonas Scholars and alumni who work within VHA Medical Centers. This community of nursing professionals currently work at over 30 VA medical facilities and the establishment of this network will allow them to more easily improve upon their connectivity and the collaboration of professional activities that benefit our veteran population.

2. Capitalizing on the sharing of research results and research activities within the two communities of professional nursing researchers. This collaboration will not only allow the sharing of research results that have led to best practices in caring for our veterans, but will also afford the researchers the opportunity to work together in identifying areas of need in research and then focusing research activities on these identified research gaps.

3. Identifying doctorally-prepared workforce opportunities within the VHA Medical Centers.

4. Strategically aligning future scholarship opportunities with identified geographic and clinical specialty needs within the VHA.

We at the Jonas Center are extremely excited about this new partnership and are committed to working closely and collaboratively with our VA nursing partners to continually improve upon the care we provide to our deserving veteran population.

To learn more about this partnership, click here.