Georgia College School of Nursing receives nearly $1.4 million in external funding to aid medically underserved communities

Georgia College FrontPage RSS Feed

The Georgia College School of Nursing has secured nearly $1.4 million in external federal funding from Advanced Nursing Education Workforce (ANEW) opportunity from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The funding will create two vital academic partnerships between the university and the Georgia Department of Public Health (GDPH) and First Choice Primary Care, a nonprofit community health center operating in Macon and Warner Robins. The grant goes toward the program’s mission to prepare nurse practitioners for service in rural and medically underserved communities across the state. The funding also marks the largest single faculty grant awarded at the university. “Most of the health care shortages are outside of Atlanta. Atlanta has an abundance of doctors, and then you get to the rural parts where there might be only one provider in the whole county,” said Dr. Sallie Coke, FNP-BC, PNP-BC, professor and interim associate dean of the College of Health Sciences. “This is where nurse practitioners can fill the gap.”
Coke said the shortages are widespread across the state, with 129 of the 154 counties in health care shortages. These locations lack in mental health providers, primary providers, pediatric providers and more.
“We are in the perfect location to help communities who are experiencing these shortages. As part of our graduate program, we only accept students from within the state of Georgia and the School of Nursing’s focus is on helping these rural and medically underserved populations,” said Coke. “We want the students to go back into the communities that they are from and be able to provide health care.”
The grant will enable a practice opportunity for both GC nurse practitioner students and GDPH nurses, allow training of nurse practitioner students by facilitating preceptorships with Public Health nurse practitioners throughout the state and allow GDPH nurses to advance their careers by providing full traineeships to attend Georgia ...

Read More