USI Receives Nursing Grant
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe University of Southern Indiana’s College of Nursing is the recipient of a four-year grant for over $2 million. The grant will be used to expand the number of primary care nurses in rural communities. The funding comes from the Health Resources and Services Administration and will be specifically used for four academic practice partnerships with two hospitals serving local, rural areas.
USI College of Nursing Dean Ann White says the grant also allows for clinical opportunities for students. “In our nursing curriculum, we plan to focus on population health, primary care in medically underserved communities and interprofessional education and practice to prepare our students for these clinical experiences,” said White.
Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center in Jasper is partnering with USI on 31 health care clinics within the scope of the grant. Memorial Hospital will also open a new facility in July 2019 that will house a family medicine residency program affiliated with the IU School of Medicine. "The opportunity to educate registered nurses in an outpatient primary care setting integrates well with our initiative to train the next generation of Family Physicians at our family medicine residency program,” said Dr. Stan Tretter, vice president of Medical Affairs and chief medical officer at Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center.
Year two of the grant will include more rural sites to be integrated in the partnership with Gibson General Hospital in Princeton, which operates four primary care clinics. The university is also working with the Dubois County Health Department, Gibson County Health Department and the Southwest Indiana Area Health Education Center, which will work with USI to involve rural communities in the expansion of primary care nursing.