Sharon Galloway’s passion for nursing and for teaching has been rewarded.

The Health Occupations teacher at the Warwick Area Career and Technical Center for the last 11 years is the recipient of a $7,000 scholarship that she plans to use to further her education so she can teach nursing at the college level.

Galloway was awarded a Tufts Health Plan Foundation Scholarship granted to clinical nurses studying for Masters or Doctoral degrees in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. These scholarships address the nursing shortage by ensuring the ability to educate new nurses.

“This program will help put both nursing educators and students into classrooms, increase the workforce and ensure enough nurses are at the bedside,” said Karen Nelson, Senior Vice President of the MHA and a registered nurse.

In a statement, Executive Director of the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, David Abelman said, “ All of us are patients at one time or another and will be affected by this problem, so Tufts Health Plan is glad to partner with like-minded organizations that are seeking solutions. We believe that providing scholarships to nurse educators is one solution, and we are pleased to congratulate the scholarship awardees.”

For Galloway, mother of 4 and a new grandmother, the award will make it easier to pursue her goal.

“It is difficult to balance the demands of family, work and school, however, it just requires dedication and time management skills,” she said.

Galloway has been the Health Occupations Teacher at the Warwick Area Career and Technical Center at Toll Gate High School for 11 years and in the nursing field for 22 years.

She received her undergraduate from Rhode Island College in 1987. From there, she spent seven years at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Providence. After that, she worked in geriatrics in a nursing home for 15 years. Geriatrics is the branch of medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and prevention of diseases in the elderly.

Four years after starting her geriatrics work, Galloway began teaching at the Career and Technical Center. Since then, hospitals such as Kent and Women and Infants have instituted programs that allow students in Galloway’s program to complete internships as they prepare for careers in nursing and other health related occupations.

“I know I could make more money practicing nursing, but I love to teach nursing and inspire students to pursue health-related careers,” Galloway said.

The application for the scholarship required an outline of goals for the applicant as a nurse educator, examples of why the applicant is qualified, what the applicant has done related to teaching and how the applicant would react to teaching different ethnic groups. Because of the work Galloway has done to prepare high school students for careers in nursing and other health-oriented careers, she found the application fairly easy to complete.

Galloway plans to use the scholarship money for books and tuition at RIC while she studies for her Masters in nursing public health and community leadership with a function in education.

“I would have definitely continued for my Masters degree without the scholarship, but it would have taken some creative financing,” said Galloway.

Galloway plans to teach nursing at the college level after receiving her degree in May 2010, but would also like to remain a teacher at the Career and Technical Center. She would like to stay in Rhode Island and hopefully teach at RIC, but has no definite plans as of yet.