Address: 560 CA-78 Brawley, California 92227 Project Director Name: Karen Macauley, PhD, DNP, FNP-BC, GNP-BC Contact Phone Numbers: (619) 594-6504 Fax (619) 594-2765 Email Address: kmacauley@sdsu.edu Website Address: sdsu.edu Grant Fund Requested $350,000/year for 3 years; Funding Priority: Priority 1. State of California, Priority 2. SDSU IV is a public Entity Funding Preference: Qualification 1. Substantially benefit rural populations Overview: The San Diego State University School of Nursing (SON) Imperial Valley (SDSU IV SON) in collaboration with El Centro Regional Medical Center (ECRMC) and Pioneers Medical Hospital (PMH) have committed to enhance the training of undergraduate nursing students in acute care settings to address and manage the social determinants of health (SDOH) and improve health equity and health literacy to meet the needs of the underserved areas in Imperial County, California (IC). We will increase the size and diversity of the nursing workforce by recruiting and enrolling nursing students from local disadvantaged and underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities to attend SDSU IV's SON nursing programs to address the shortage of registered nurses from disadvantaged and underrepresented IC communities. The objectives of this grant are: To expand the use of innovative education and training models to strengthen the capacity of our SON undergraduate nursing students ready to practice in acute care settings; To expand the IC nursing workforce by creating experiential learning opportunities emphasizing advanced nursing skills and care delivery To provide didactic nursing education geared toward the delivery of culturally sensitive care, addressing the IC's SDOH and health equity while developing skills in leadership, communication, and critical thinking in a technologically innovative and collaborative practice environment; To advance health equity and support for underserved populations by increasing the num
ber of nurses that will be working as integral members of inter-professional teams and use their expanded skills to reduce health disparities; To increase the diversity of the nursing workforce by recruiting students and faculty from the diverse IC populations, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities; To ensure programmatic activities can continue, can be coordinated effectively, and that grant recipients can implement recovery plans in the event of public health emergencies Need: Imperial County covers 3 million acres of rural desert and farmland and is 85.8% Latino. Parts of IC are designated as poverty stricken, rural, medically underserved area/population, and health professional shortage area. Imperial County is considered a Critical/Severe RN Shortage area by CA's Department of Healthcare Access and Information. COVID has magnified IC's nursing shortage and uncovered significant healthcare gaps and health disparities. To address the nursing shortage, the SON has launched a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing degree, beginning Fall 2022 for 20 nursing students. This project will increase the enrollment to 40 nursing students in Fall of 2023. The curricula will adopt American Association of Colleges of Nursing's New Essentials addressing IC health disparities by nursing leadership concepts including communication, diversity, equity, and inclusion, evidence-based practice, clinical judgment, and SDOH. To ensure culturally sensitive faculty, preceptors and nursing workforce, faculty professional development programs will be created to integrate SDOH concepts, health equity, populations at highest risk for health disparities, health literacy, leadership and communication skills to improve IC health outcomes. The SON, ECRMC and PMC will partner to develop a home-grown healthcare workforce pipeline to address the needs of IC compounded by COVID-19, health equities, and limited access to care
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