UofL secures $6.5 million to enhance training for nursing professionals

Grants awarded to support medically underserved communities

2023-12-05

(Press-News.org) The University of Louisville has received $6.5 million through two federal grants to help increase Kentuckians’ access to health care, particularly in underserved rural and urban areas. The UofL School of Nursing will use the funds from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to develop and implement an accelerated Licensed Practical Nurse-to-Bachelor of Science in Nursing (LPN-to-BSN) pathway in medically underserved areas of Kentucky. The second HRSA-funded project aims to increase the number and diversity of nurse practitioners to better address the health care needs of rural and urban underserved populations.

Kentucky has a severe shortage of health care providers, with at least some portion of 113 of the state’s 120 counties designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas, including parts of Jefferson County.

“These kinds of workforce pipeline grants are truly transformative and will make a lasting and tangible impact on the health and wellness of Kentuckians for generations to come,” said Interim Provost Gerry Bradley. “Our highly trained and committed nursing faculty are advancing the work that enables us to continue in our effort to expand access to high quality and diverse health care across the entire Commonwealth.”

School of Nursing Interim Dean Mary DeLetter says she’s proud of the nursing faculty who worked tirelessly to secure these grants that benefit nursing students, the nursing profession and ultimately, citizens across the state.

“These programs support opportunities to enhance clinical training and bring superior nursing care to all corners of the Commonwealth, from rural Appalachia to urban Jefferson County to rural western Kentucky counties,” she said.

Of the total grant funding, $3.9 million was awarded to Heather Mitchell, associate professor and interim associate dean for the undergraduate and pre-licensure programs, and her team to develop an accelerated LPN-to-BSN pathway for nurses in medically underserved areas of Kentucky. The program is a statewide collaboration between the UofL School of Nursing and the Kentucky Community and Technical College (KCTCS) System, and will also include academic-practice collaborations with three large health systems across Kentucky — UofL Health, Owensboro Health Inc., and Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation. The grant will support scholarships for up to 83 students to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.

“Our objective is to address the shortage of practice-ready registered nurses by increasing access to baccalaureate nursing education across Kentucky. This collaborative effort will provide an opportunity for licensed practical nurses to accelerate their pathway to RN licensure and meet workforce needs in medically underserved areas of Kentucky,” Mitchell said. “When I think about the impact we will have on nurses’ and patients’ lives, and for generations to come, knowing that we are making a difference out in those communities is so meaningful to me. This is why I do what I do.”

A second $2.6 million HRSA grant was awarded to Sara Robertson, associate professor and interim associate dean for the DNP and APRN programs, for “Advancing Diversity and Health Equity in the Primary Care and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Workforce.” Robertson is partnering with the UofL Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine, Family Health Centers of Louisville, and Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation. The goal is to increase the education of nurse practitioners from diverse populations, including underrepresented minorities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“We want the nurse practitioner workforce to more closely mirror the population of Kentucky in terms of diversity and enable NPs from rural areas in the state to earn an APRN degree and provide high quality health care in their own rural areas across the Commonwealth,” Robertson said. “To be able to offer scholarships for students whose dream is to work with vulnerable and rural populations is impactful. This funding will help make their dreams of becoming a nurse practitioner a reality and at the same time, improve access to quality health care across the state of Kentucky.”

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

UofL secures $6.5 million to enhance training for nursing professionals 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Reverse metabolomics: new method finds biomarker for inflammatory bowel disease

2023-12-05

In recent years, microbiome research has started to shift its focus from the microbes themselves to the molecules they produce. After all, it’s these molecules that directly interact with human cells to influence a person’s health. But trying to identify which molecules are being made by a person’s microbiome is quite challenging. A typical metabolomics study can only characterize about 10% of the molecular data from a human microbiome sample. In a new study published on December 5, 2023 in Nature, microbiome experts at University of California San Diego ...

Older organs accelerate aging in transplant recipients

2023-12-05

Most organ transplantations involve supply from older donors to younger recipients. Aging cells can become senescent, a condition in which they stop multiplying and secrete chemicals that negatively affect neighboring cells. Senescent cells accumulate in older donor organs, and have the potential to compromise transplant outcomes. A study led by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, found that in preclinical models, transplanting older organs can trigger ...

Pregnant women are missing vital nutrients needed for them and their babies – and situation could worsen with plant-based foods

2023-12-05

Pregnant women are not getting the essential nutrients they and their babies need from modern diets say scientists, who have warned that the situation will likely worsen as more people turn to plant-based foods. A study looking at the health of expecting mothers from high-income countries, including the UK, New Zealand and Singapore, found that 90 per cent were lacking key vitamins necessary for healthy pregnancies and the wellbeing of unborn infants. Scientists from the University of Southampton, working with experts worldwide, surveyed more than 1,700 women and found most were missing essential nutrients found in abundance in meat and dairy products. These included vitamins B12, B6 and ...

Cell-type-specific genetic risk contributes to distinct stages of Alzheimer’s disease progression

2023-12-05

Developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is difficult because complex underlying mechanisms drive different types of cells that may contribute to the disorder. Microglia and astrocytes, resident immune and support cells in the central nervous system, are known to exclusively express several genes linked to risk of AD — particularly AD dementia. However, it was previously unclear exactly how and when these genetic risk factors contributed to other, distinct stages of AD progression, such as the accumulation of amyloid-β plaques and tau tangles. Researchers led by a team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare ...

Argonne physicist recognized for “Top Cited Paper” by Institute of Physics

2023-12-05

A paper co-authored by physicist Filip Kondev of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has earned a “Top Cited Paper Award” from IOP Publishing, the publishing arm of the Institute of Physics. The paper, “The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear physics properties,” provides researchers with recommended values of the basic nuclear physics properties for all known atomic nuclei. These data are provided for each nucleus in its ground state, its lowest energy level, and in its excited, isomeric state, a higher energy level that lives longer than what is typical. These data constitute the fundamental ...

Researchers identify altered functional brain connectivity in autism subtypes

2023-12-05

Philadelphia, December 5, 2023 – What happens in the brain to cause many neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), remains a mystery. A major limitation for researchers is the lack of biomarkers, or objective biological outputs, for these disorders, and in the case of ASD, for specific subtypes of disease. Now, a new study uses brain imaging and machine learning to identify altered functional brain connectivity (FC) in people with ASD – importantly, taking ...

Tanyu collecting instrumentation data from RAP-aggregate base project on Minnieville road

2023-12-05

Tanyu Collecting Instrumentation Data From RAP-Aggregate Base Project On Minnieville Road Burak Tanyu, Professor, Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (CEIE); Director of CEIE Laboratories, received $36,674 from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) for: "Collection of Instrumentation Data From the RAP-Aggregate Base Project on Minnieville Road." Mason's Sustainable Geotransportation Infrastructure (SGI) research team has access to an actual roadway site located in Minnieville, Virginia, ...

Three decades of data in Bangladesh show elevated risk of infant mortality In flood-prone areas

2023-12-05

A new study from researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and UC San Francisco estimates 152,753 excess infant deaths were attributable to living in flood-prone areas in Bangladesh over the past 30 years. Additionally, across the study period, children born during rainy months faced higher risk of death than those born in dry months. The paper was published Dec. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The findings begin to unspool the long term public health impacts of recurring environmental hazards such as flooding, ...

Mice pass the mirror test, a classic indicator of self-recognition

2023-12-05

Researchers report December 5 in the journal Neuron that mice display behavior that resembles self-recognition when they see themselves in the mirror. When the researchers marked the foreheads of black-furred mice with a spot of white ink, the mice spent more time grooming their heads in front of the mirror—presumably to try and wash away the ink spot. However, the mice only showed this self-recognition-like behavior if they were already accustomed to mirrors, if they had socialized with other mice who looked like them, and if the ink spot was relatively large. The team identified a subset of neurons in the hippocampus that are involved in developing and storing this visual self-image, ...

Tonsil, adenoid removal improved sleep quality, some behavioral problems in children with mild sleep apnea

2023-12-05

The surgery did not improve the children’s neurodevelopmental functioning but was associated with improved quality of life, sleep symptoms, and blood pressure 12-months post-surgery according to a randomized control trial led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute Between 6% and 17% of children suffer from sleep-disordered breathing, characterized by habitual snoring, increased respiratory effort, and sleep apnea. If left untreated, the disorder may put children at higher risk of neurodevelopmental impairment, reduced quality of life, and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Enlarged tonsils are one of the main risk ...

UofL secures $6.5 million to enhance training for nursing professionals

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: