Thousands of nurses and geriatric specialists—many of them minorities—will be trained for the provider workforce under $159.1 million in federal grants under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“We cannot build a healthier America if our country continues to face a growing health professions shortage,” says Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “A well-trained, educated and diverse workforce is critical to meeting future healthcare demands, and to reforming the nation’s healthcare system.”
The grants from HHS fall into three categories:
- 1. Nursing Workforce Development, $106 million, to train nurses as primary care providers and/or nursing faculty, 351 schools of nursing and individuals training to be nurses or nurse specialists, nurse anesthetist programs, 108 programs to promote career development and nurse retention, improve opportunities for minorities who want to be nurses and nine programs to expand health information technology in nurse training schools.
2. Interdisciplinary Geriatric Education and Training, $29.5 million, will fund three geriatric education and training programs at accredited health professions schools.
3.Centers for Excellence, $23.6 million, to support Centers of Excellence programs to improve recruitment and performance of underrepresented minority students preparing for health professions careers.
The awardees are schools of allopathic medicine, osteopathic medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and allied health (including designated Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); graduate programs in behavioral health; and other public and nonprofit health or educational organizations.
The largest single grants are those awarded for Centers of Excellence. They include:
- Howard University, Washington, DC, $1,044,939
- University of Hawaii, Honolulu, $1,096,079
- Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, $2,771,566
Another of the large grants was awarded to Boston Medical Center, $1,091,985 for geriatric care training for physicians.
The specific grants, made possible under provisions of the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, are listed here.