Hester McLaws Nursing Scholarship

The School of Nursing is the recipient of a bequest from the estate of Hester McLaws. The funds are used for financial assistance for advanced graduate students working on their dissertations. The intent is to disburse these funds in a way that will assist in maintaining the high quality of research of our students and expedite their progress in the final stages of the doctoral program. Requests for financial assistance for dissertation work are invited.

Guidelines and Restrictions
Because the funds are limited, and in order to provide needed support for as many students as possible, the following guidelines have been adopted:

1. The maximum award is $3,500. If you are planning a more expensive study, you should apply to other sources as well as the McLaws Fund. Sigma Theta Tau and the American Nurses Foundation both have small research grant programs as do various other organizations.
2. There are no restrictions on allowable costs as long as they are directly related to the dissertation research, with the following exception: funds for computer analysis or other University services routinely available for students without charge must be used unless special requirements necessitate additional or different funds.
3. Funds are not provided for students who have accepted a position for full-time employment at another institution, even if they are working on their dissertations.
4. You must be registered in order to receive reimbursements.

Applications
Requests for McLaws should be made after your supervisory committee has reviewed and approved your dissertation plan, and before expenditures included in the request are made. A signed Dissertation Proposal Approval (Word/PDF) must be on file before funds can be released. There is no set time for submitting a request. It can be done whenever you have reached the appropriate stage in your program.

Please address a cover letter to:

Margaret W. Baker, PhD, RN
Associate Dean for Academic Services (Interim)
Academic Services

1. An abstract, not to exceed 250 words, describing your proposed research.
2. An estimated budget which is itemized and, where reasons for the items are not obvious, justified.
   
   Funding requests for personnel, including editors, and transcriptionists, must:
   1. include the costs of benefits (14.9% of hourly salary) in addition to the hourly salary, and
   2. be approved by Academic Services PRIOR to hiring.
3. The signature of the chairperson of your supervisory committee signifying that he or she has assisted with the budget estimate or, at the least, concurs with its validity and that the request for these funds is appropriate.
4. Applications will take three (3) to six (6) weeks to process. Once your application is processed, you’ll receive an email notification and will be required to set up a meeting with Laura Mason in Academic Services.

Reimbursement

Once funding is approved, but before disbursement can begin, you must attend a mandatory budget review meeting with the Director of Program Operations and the Graduate Student Program Coordinator in Academic Services. The meeting is intended to clarify and review the ways in which McLaws funds can be used. Prior to the meeting, you should review the McLaws Scholarship Statement of Acceptance.

If you will be making payments to research subjects and wish to utilize McLaws funds rather than request reimbursement, you may submit a request for a Field Advance before you begin subject payments. Contact Academic Services before you submit any request for a Field Advance.

All payments to research subjects are subject to University of Washington tax reporting requirements. More information about UW tax requirements as they relate to research subjects can be found on the UW Financial Services website.

If you wish to receive reimbursement for McLaws-eligible expenses, you must submit your requests directly to Academic Services. The following guidelines should be used when submitting items for reimbursement:

• Personnel hires need to be pre-approved.
• Once pre-approval takes place, if the editor, translator or transcriptionist (etc.) is not in the UW Payroll System, it will take approximately 4-6 weeks for the individual(s) to be processed through UW HR. The individuals may not begin to work until approval is obtained. All payroll paperwork will be the responsibility of the student for the new hire. New hires paperwork will be coordinated/processed with Laura Mason and the SoN payroll team. Note: If the student would like to pay out-of-pocket for these types of services, pre-approval is not required.
• All requests for reimbursement must be accompanied by receipts and a detailed summary.
• Your name and McLaws budget number should be written on all receipts.
• When submitting receipts, all receipts must measure 8.5" x 11" (letter size paper). Small receipts must be taped on all 4 corners - not stapled - to a blank 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. All information must be on only one side of the paper. (This format allows easy electronic scanning of your receipts.)
• When you are submitting receipts for reimbursement of travel expenses, you must also fill out a travel expense voucher (TEV). Read the TEV instructions carefully. If you are requesting reimbursement for automotive mileage, include a mileage report.
• You may only submit requests for reimbursement between the 1st and the 7th of each month.

If you have questions, contact Laura Mason, Manager of Student Scholarships & Operations.

Budget Changes
Sometimes the need for actual expenditures during a study differs somewhat from the proposed budget. A shifting between categories of the budget of not more than 20% of the total award is allowed.