The University of Nebraska Medical Center has received a five-year, nearly $2 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to educate and train health professionals and faculty members across the state in geriatrics and gerontology.
The grant will create the Nebraska Geriatric Education Center (NEBGEC) to improve the health care and health care outcomes of Nebraska’s vulnerable elderly population residing in rural areas, said program director Jane Potter, M.D., section chief of geriatrics and professor of internal medicine at UNMC.
“The grant will enable us to disperse geriatrics training and expertise across the state,” Dr. Potter said. “Caring for older people is especially challenging in rural areas where there are fewer health care professionals and fewer health care institutions.”
The NEBGEC’s educational efforts will eliminate barriers to care and health care disparities through training of health care professionals in medicine, nursing, physician assistants, advanced practice nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy and social work.
In 2000, 12.4 percent of Nebraska’s population was over age 65. In Nebraska rural areas it was 18.6 percent. By 2020, the number of people age 65 and older will climb to 22 percent in Nebraska’s rural areas.
At the same time, 46 percent of Nebraska’s 93 counties are medically underserved, Dr. Potter said. “This is a wonderful opportunity to do education outreach, which is on target for what we see as our mission,” she said.
During the first year of the grant, organizers will plan and develop the curriculum, which includes a mini-fellowship program. The fellowship program will consist of 80 hours of interdisciplinary and discipline specific training, with the option of taking an additional 20 hours of faculty development. Other training activities include master’s preparation in gerontological nursing and geriatric social work.
Beginning the second year, organizers will implement the NEBGEC training via onsite training, Web-based courses, distance technology including audio/video conferencing. “We want to provide delivery of the education as conveniently, inexpensively and efficiently, as possible,” Dr. Potter said.
UNMC’s Rural Health Education Network (RHEN), as well as the Omaha Veterans Affairs Medical Center and state veterans homes and the Nebraska Health Care Association, will assist in the educational outreach. The NEBGEC could become a model for other states, where geography is the uniqueness and challenge, Dr. Potter said.
In addition to the educational and training components, the grant will allow UNMC to increase awareness of careers in gerontology among health professions faculty and students at UNMC through “Celebration of Aging” programs. Special programming also will promote gerontology health careers among elementary, secondary and undergraduate students with a special emphasis on recruitment of under-represented minorities.
“Gerontology is a tremendous growth area and people engaged in this field find tremendous satisfaction in helping patients and their families,” Dr. Potter said.
The project is a logical extension of a 2001 grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation that provides geriatrics training to Nebraska physicians. That four-year, $2 million grant also enabled the UNMC College of Medicine to offer faculty, residents and students a geriatrics education Web site (http://geriatrics.unmc.edu), an aging interest group for students, faculty development activities, and end-of-life care training.
“This is an opportunity to do an interdisciplinary and discipline specific project on a broader level so individuals will have special expertise in geriatric care, regardless of whether they are physical therapists, nurses, physician assistants, social workers, pharmacists or physicians,” Dr. Potter said. “As Nebraskans grow older we want to ensure they stay active, independent, and as alert and comfortable as possible.”