The University of Rhode Island (URI) College of
Nursing recently received a $2.7
million, four-year grant aimed at enhancing the nursing workforce and strengthening
health care in the community. The grant will allow URI Nursing students to get
more hands-on experience, benefiting patients at local community health centers
at the same time.
The
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has provided the grant in
an effort to fuel its Advanced
Nursing Education Workforce (ANEW) program, which enhances
the academic clinical partnerships between the College and two community health
centers—Thundermist Health Center and Providence Community Health Center. With
help from the grant, URI nursing students in the Adult Gerontology, Psychiatric
Mental Health, and Family Nurse Practitioner programs, based at the Nursing
Education Center in Providence, will be placed in the health centers to provide
primary care and behavioral health services, under the supervision of
professionals in the centers.
The
HRSA grant provides funding for traineeships and will pay the tuition of 14
nursing students in the program each year. Associate Nursing Professor Denisa
Coppa expects 48 to 56 students will be placed in one or both of the centers over
the four-year period, each working two days a week, while maintaining their
studies as full-time students.
Coppa tells today.uri.edu, “This program will give experience to these nurse practitioner students so they are prepared to work in community health centers when they graduate…This project is a huge benefit not just for the students, but for practicing health care providers and the health care system as a whole. We’re increasing and transforming the health care workforce to provide more primary care services for the medically underserved population.”
To learn more about the
$2.7 million, four-year HRSA grant awarded to the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing to help enhance the nursing
workforce and strengthen health care in the community, visit here.
The ANEW program is intended to support innovative academic-practice partnerships to prepare primary care advanced practice registered nurses to practice in rural and underserved areas by providing academic and clinical training. Funding from ANEW supports infrastructure funds to nursing schools and their partners who provide clinical training experiences.
FNU president Dr. Susan E. Stone tells KYForward.com,“We are honored to receive the ANEW grant and excited for the opportunities it creates. Since its founding, Frontier Nursing University has been committed to filling the gaps in quality healthcare available in rural and underserved populations. This grant will enable us to expand our impact and improve our ability to address healthcare disparities in communities across the country.”
Frontier Nursing University offers graduate nursing education and community-based clinical training through distance learning to reach students across the country, positively impacting quality and access to care in rural areas. Thanks to the ANEW grant, the university plans to support 350 nurse practitioner and nurse midwife students completing their clinical training in rural areas over the next two years.
The FNU ANEW program has outlined four steps to achieving its goal of expanding academic-practice partnerships to enhance the clinical preparation and distribution of advanced practice nurses and nurse midwives in rural settings:
Improve student readiness to practice in rural primary care settings through co-designed and tailored didactic education and clinical training experiences through academic-practice partnerships.
Recruit, train, support, and evaluate clinical preceptors located in rural areas nationwide as program partners in order to leverage the quality and distribution of primary care preceptors in rural settings.
Provide 175 FNU students entering the clinical practicum in a rural setting with $2,000 in traineeship support each grant year.
Improve the distribution of APRNs and nurse-midwives throughout rural communities across the nation via improved strategies to support and connect trainees with rural clinical experience to primary care employment in those same settings.
To learn more about the $1.3 million Advanced Nursing Education Workforce grant awarded to Frontier Nursing University, visit here.
Over the next two years, 30 nurse practitioner students will be selected to take part in the grant and receive specialized education on how to care for rural populations. The financial support provided by the grant will allow these students to complete clinical placements in rural areas of Michigan and increase the pipeline of health care providers for these populations.[et_bloom_inline optin_id=optin_39]
Margaret Andrews, Interim Dean of the School of Nursing, tells News.UMFlint.edu, “Nurse practitioners serving rural communities provide many preventative services, detect and treat illnesses, increase life expectancy of rural residents, and improve the overall health and quality of life for rural communities. UM-Flint is pleased to partner with existing physicians and nurse practitioner practices in Michigan’s rural areas to educate and train the next generation of nurse practitioners to serve the needs of rural communities in Michigan.”
To learn more about UM-Flint’s Advanced Nursing Education Workforce grant and efforts to increase the number of nurse practitioners trained to serve in rural areas, visit here.
