College of Nursing

Seton Hall’s College of Nursing Receives $3.6M Grant for Mobile Health Clinic Training  

Image of the exterior of the IHS building with a Seton Hall logo and trees around it. Seton Hall University’s College of Nursing has been awarded a $3.6 million grant by the Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) through its Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention-Mobile Health Training Program.

“The Seton Hall University College of Nursing and the City of Newark’s Nurse-led Mobile Health Training Project” allows graduate students in the College’s adult-gerontology primary care, pediatric primary care and the new psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner programs to engage in a semester-long clinical experience on the mobile health care units in Newark, New Jersey. During the first year of the grant, 19 nurse practitioner students will engage in this clinical experience completing a range of 120-160 hours of precepted clinical training on various days and locations of the mobile health care units.

Upon completion of their practicum experience on the mobile health care units, students will be eligible to receive a $10,000 stipend to offset costs of tuition, books, travel and other expenses. By the conclusion of the grant period in 2026, it is projected that 133 students will be afforded this unique opportunity.

“This is a very exciting opportunity for the College of Nursing and certainly a wonderful collaboration with the City of Newark, a medically underserved area,” said Marie Foley, Ph.D., R.N., C.N.L., dean of the College of Nursing. “This represents the epitome of how we educate our students — learning by doing — and supports the Seton Hall mission of servant leadership.”

This four-year project represents an innovative academic, practice and community partnership between the College of Nursing and the Newark Department of Health and Community Wellness (DHCW) to provide the residents of Newark with increased opportunities for health and wellness and Seton Hall’s nurse practitioner students with the education, training and competencies to treat patients and better address the social determinants of health in Newark.

The project is intended to strengthen the diversity, education and training of the nursing workforce and to provide culturally aligned quality care to vulnerable, medically underserved residents of Newark by enhancing nurse education and training through expanded curricula and quality clinical training on mobile health units.

The goals of this project are to:

  1. Expand the Newark Department of Health and Community Wellness capacity to provide integrated primary and behavioral health care to underserved communities through three nurse-led mobile health units.
  2. Provide experiential mobile health clinical training and expand training opportunities on the use of innovative technology solutions that increase access to health care services to medically underserved populations.
  3. Strengthen nursing faculty’s capabilities to deliver relevant social determinants of health and health equity content to students.
  4. Increase the diversity of the nursing workforce by recruiting and supporting nurse practitioner students from diverse populations, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities.

“We are excited to embark on this partnership with the Newark Department of Health and Community Wellness,” said principal investigator for the grant Joyce L. Maglione, Ph.D., ANP-BC, associate professor and program director of the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program. “Not only will our students learn, support and grow their nurse practitioner skills, but also have the opportunity to contribute to a healthy environment for the residents of Newark.”

It is anticipated that the project will create a pipeline of nurse practitioners for the City of Newark and will serve as the foundation for a long-term collaboration between the College of Nursing and the Department of Health and Community Wellness in Newark.

Nurse practitioners provide cost-effective, high-quality delivery of patient care and there is a high demand for NPs in Newark and especially in community settings to address the health care needs of medically underserved populations. Additionally, the need exists to increase the number of Nurse practitioners and nurse practitioner students from diverse backgrounds, including under-represented racial and ethnic minorities.

“The College of Nursing is deeply committed to advancing health care to vulnerable populations and addressing healthcare disparities,” said Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research Kathleen Neville, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN. “This new grant expands our educational training in Newark to include healthcare services in adult and pediatric primary care and behavioral health, in addition to our current Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Grant, which provides clinical experiences in the city’s substance and opioid-use treatment centers.”

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $3.6 million with four percent financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government.

About Seton Hall University College of Nursing

As New Jersey's first college to offer a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) program, Seton Hall's College of Nursing has educated approximately one-third of all New Jersey nurses. U.S. News and World Report has recognized Seton Hall University as having one of the top online graduate nursing programs in the nation, ranking 15th in 2022, up from 27 last year. For the past three years, Seton Hall's College of Nursing has had the top-ranked online graduate nursing programs in New Jersey and ranked third among all Catholic universities in the country. Offering educational opportunities from the B.S.N. and Accelerated B.S.N. degree through the Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) and Ph.D., the College's mission is to educate baccalaureate-prepared generalists and advanced practitioners of nursing who aspire to be innovators and leaders in the nursing profession with a commitment to lifelong learning, service and leadership for the greater good of the global society.

Categories: Education, Health and Medicine, Research