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Posted 11-8-00
CLEVELAND -- The Helene Fuld Health Trust has awarded $99,547 to the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University for a community-based nursing education program designed to improve health care among under-served residents of Cleveland's inner-city neighborhoods.
Over the next two years, the program will enable more than 200 master's level students to participate in service learning projects at community agencies that serve inner-city residents. Developed in collaboration with the community partners, these projects will be a component of the nursing school's master's curriculum, which prepares nurses to become advanced practice nurses (APN).
APNs must develop skills that will prepare them to work in community settings and to provide quality nursing care to all members of society, observes Georgia Narsavage, director of the Master of Science in Nursing Program and the community-based education project.
"The health care needs of Cleveland's inner-city community will be the primary focus of service," says Narsavage, an associate professor. "Minorities in Cleveland continue to be over-represented in infant mortality rates, cases of lead poisoning in children, and deaths due to heart disease, AIDS, and breast cancer."
Also, the Ohio Department of Health listed more than 100 City of Cleveland census tracts as Primary Care Health Professions Shortage Areas by in 1999. "APNs should be prepared to be part of the solution to these problems," Narsavage says.
Service learning enables students to help community agencies in ways that are relevant to their academic work, explains Deborah Lindell, an instructor at the nursing school and coordinator of the new initiative. "While providing service to the agency, the students have the opportunity to put what they're learning into practice," says Lindell, a clinical nurse specialist in community health.
Graduate nursing students will learn about the new initiative at a November 9 presentation entitled "What is Service Learning and Why Should I be Involved?" The next day, Bolton School faculty will hold a daylong planning workshop with representatives of about 20 community agencies that are serving on the project's advisory board. These agencies include the Cleveland Department of Public Health, the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the American Red Cross, and various school and parish nursing programs.
The first service learning projects will debut in January. The Fuld grant funds the program through spring 2002 and provides for a regional conference at the end to disseminate the program's outcomes.
The Bolton School has a history of excellence in graduate nursing education and was ranked seventh in the most recent U.S. News and World Report survey. Its Master of Science in Nursing Program prepares nurses for advanced practice as nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, and nurse anesthetists.