USI receives $5M to extend Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program
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The federal Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded $5 million to the University of Southern Indiana to continue its Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program for an additional five years.
The university said this week that the funding is the largest federal grant that its College of Nursing Health Professions has ever received.
The administration originally awarded a $3.7 million grant to USI in 2019 to implement the five-year program. The initiative is designed to improve health outcomes for older adults in underserved communities in southwest Indiana.
The goal is to “develop a workforce to maximize patient and family engagement and integrate geriatrics into primary care,” the university said in a news release.
“This new funding allows our team to continue to focus on integrating age-friendly and dementia-friendly initiatives in primary care,” said Katie Ehlman, director of USI’s Bronstein Center for Healthy Aging and Wellness. “Additionally, this funding supports innovative ways to address nursing home workforce shortages by creating clinical pipelines, including a Pre-Apprenticeship Program through the Indiana Office of Work-Based Learning and Apprenticeship, as well as a U.S. Department of Labor-registered Certified Nursing Assistant Apprenticeship Program.”
USI said it will continue to partner with Evansville-based Deaconess Health and its family medicine residency and geriatric fellowship programs to focus on integrating geriatrics in primary care.
The additional funding, the university said, will also allow the program to work more closely with the Southwestern Indiana Area Health Education Center to create employment pipelines for Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Science in Occupational Therapy, and Occupational Therapy Assistant students in rural and medically underserved areas.
You can learn more about the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program by clicking here.