Mother and child, pediatric ward at Rubaga Hospital in Uganda
Meg Styles has seen firsthand the toll that AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis have taken in developing areas such as Malawi and Uganda, Africa. Although the U.S. also is facing a nursing shortage, the situation is far grimmer in these countries where need is great. Styles is doing her part to change that.
“There are 57 countries with critical healthcare shortages, defined as having less than 80% coverage,” Styles says. “Countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa shoulder 24% of the global disease burden yet only have 3% of the world’s healthcare workforce. It’s not uncommon to see women lying on the ground in Uganda in active labor being attended to by family, or patients with horrific burns, having their dressings changed by relatives.”
In 2007, Styles, of Danville, Calif., founded The Gretta Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated solely to providing in-country scholarships to nursing students in developing countries. Named in honor of her mother, nursing leader Margretta “Gretta” Madden Styles, RN, EdD, FAAN, the organization hopes to be well on its way to training 1,000 nursing scholars in the next five to 10 years. The minimum academic offering is the diploma RN, but 11 of 12 current scholars are in BSN programs.
Gretta Madden Styles died in 2005, but not before leaving a huge impact on the nursing profession and her daughter. A leader in nursing education, Madden Styles served as dean of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, for 10 years and was president of the American Nurses Association, the California Board of Registered Nursing and the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Madden Styles, known as the “mother of nurse credentialing,” celebrated her birthday March 19, a date honored nationally as Certified Nurses Day.
“One of the last things my mom said to me was that she hoped that after her death I would find a career that I was passionate about,” Styles says. “For my mom, being a nurse wasn’t just a job, it was truly a calling.”
After her mother’s death, Styles made the decision to leave a lucrative 13-year career in real estate to return to school and pursue a master’s in public administration. While working on her degree, Styles worked for the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance, a nonprofit that focuses on HIV care and prevention in Malawi. One of GAIA’s programs centered on offering in-country nursing scholarships, and Styles saw the need for such a program to be offered on a global basis.
“I’m not a nurse, but I am a firm supporter of many of the global health initiatives such as HIV care,” Styles says. “Yet without a dramatic increase in the nursing workforce, these initiatives will never gain sustainable traction.”
Styles hopes her nonprofit will help fill the gap in the international nursing shortage.
“Our focus is on women who have a passion for nursing and who hail from rural areas,” she says. “Many of these women have years of experience caring for their own family members, and come from a society where women are the last in the family to be educated.”
As a Gretta scholar, students agree to work in their home countries for a period equivalent to the number of years their studies were funded by the foundation. To accomplish this, Styles and her staff also are focusing on nurse retention by working closely with each country’s national nurses’ association.
“Many nurses leave their native countries each year to obtain higher pay and better workplace conditions in other countries,” Styles says. “By doing intensive research and a full needs assessment, we hope to identify and help change some of the barriers that keep nurses from remaining in their home countries.”
These barriers can begin with nursing schools, which Styles says are lacking in everything from modern technology to basic instructional materials.
“We’ve toured skill labs where nurses have few necessities, such as simulated mannequins to practice on,” Styles says. “We’re trying to determine the basic needs of these nursing schools and find how we can help bring their clinical labs and libraries up to speed.”
Styles says her foundation also hopes to partner with U.S. nursing schools that can provide distance learning to nurses who live in rural areas far from learning centers, and to also partner with schools that want to sponsor a nursing student throughout his or her term.
For a donation of $25, the foundation can pay for one scholar’s academic enrollment fee. A contribution of $300 buys enough clinical supplies for an entire nursing program.
“We estimate the cost of providing a full nursing scholarship to a Gretta scholar as being between $1,500 to $3,800 per year,” Styles says. “We hold fundraisers and also accept donations through our Web site, www.grettafoundation.org. Our goal is to make an impact in the areas where the need for nurses is greatest.”
Linda Childers is a contributing writer for Nurse.com.
“There are 57 countries with critical healthcare shortages, defined as having less than 80% coverage,” Styles says. “Countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa shoulder 24% of the global disease burden yet only have 3% of the world’s healthcare workforce. It’s not uncommon to see women lying on the ground in Uganda in active labor being attended to by family, or patients with horrific burns, having their dressings changed by relatives.”
In 2007, Styles, of Danville, Calif., founded The Gretta Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated solely to providing in-country scholarships to nursing students in developing countries. Named in honor of her mother, nursing leader Margretta “Gretta” Madden Styles, RN, EdD, FAAN, the organization hopes to be well on its way to training 1,000 nursing scholars in the next five to 10 years. The minimum academic offering is the diploma RN, but 11 of 12 current scholars are in BSN programs.
Gretta Madden Styles died in 2005, but not before leaving a huge impact on the nursing profession and her daughter. A leader in nursing education, Madden Styles served as dean of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, for 10 years and was president of the American Nurses Association, the California Board of Registered Nursing and the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Madden Styles, known as the “mother of nurse credentialing,” celebrated her birthday March 19, a date honored nationally as Certified Nurses Day.
“One of the last things my mom said to me was that she hoped that after her death I would find a career that I was passionate about,” Styles says. “For my mom, being a nurse wasn’t just a job, it was truly a calling.”
After her mother’s death, Styles made the decision to leave a lucrative 13-year career in real estate to return to school and pursue a master’s in public administration. While working on her degree, Styles worked for the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance, a nonprofit that focuses on HIV care and prevention in Malawi. One of GAIA’s programs centered on offering in-country nursing scholarships, and Styles saw the need for such a program to be offered on a global basis.
“I’m not a nurse, but I am a firm supporter of many of the global health initiatives such as HIV care,” Styles says. “Yet without a dramatic increase in the nursing workforce, these initiatives will never gain sustainable traction.”
Styles hopes her nonprofit will help fill the gap in the international nursing shortage.
“Our focus is on women who have a passion for nursing and who hail from rural areas,” she says. “Many of these women have years of experience caring for their own family members, and come from a society where women are the last in the family to be educated.”
As a Gretta scholar, students agree to work in their home countries for a period equivalent to the number of years their studies were funded by the foundation. To accomplish this, Styles and her staff also are focusing on nurse retention by working closely with each country’s national nurses’ association.
“Many nurses leave their native countries each year to obtain higher pay and better workplace conditions in other countries,” Styles says. “By doing intensive research and a full needs assessment, we hope to identify and help change some of the barriers that keep nurses from remaining in their home countries.”
These barriers can begin with nursing schools, which Styles says are lacking in everything from modern technology to basic instructional materials.
“We’ve toured skill labs where nurses have few necessities, such as simulated mannequins to practice on,” Styles says. “We’re trying to determine the basic needs of these nursing schools and find how we can help bring their clinical labs and libraries up to speed.”
Styles says her foundation also hopes to partner with U.S. nursing schools that can provide distance learning to nurses who live in rural areas far from learning centers, and to also partner with schools that want to sponsor a nursing student throughout his or her term.
For a donation of $25, the foundation can pay for one scholar’s academic enrollment fee. A contribution of $300 buys enough clinical supplies for an entire nursing program.
“We estimate the cost of providing a full nursing scholarship to a Gretta scholar as being between $1,500 to $3,800 per year,” Styles says. “We hold fundraisers and also accept donations through our Web site, www.grettafoundation.org. Our goal is to make an impact in the areas where the need for nurses is greatest.”
Linda Childers is a contributing writer for Nurse.com.
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