A latest grant from the Missouri Division of Financial Improvement will assist prepare lots of of MU college students to develop into part-time nurse assistants at MU Well being Care.
The three-year grant, which begins in fall 2023, will create a three-credit hour elective course throughout the MU Sinclair College of Nursing. The category will assist practically 100 MU college students annually earn paid, part-time positions inside MU Well being Care as nurse assistants, also called unlicensed assistive personnel (UAPs), licensed nurse assistants (CNAs) and affected person care technicians.
“We presently have practically 800 pre-nursing undergraduate college students at MU, and as a professor educating a freshmen-level course, I usually get requested by my college students if there are alternatives accessible to work at MU Well being Care earlier than they start nursing college their junior 12 months,” mentioned Robin Harris, an affiliate educating professor within the Sinclair College of Nursing and the grant’s major investigator. “I additionally hear from our companions at MU Well being Care about staffing shortages all through the well being care trade, notably the necessity for extra nurses and particularly nurse assistants, so we need to help this pipeline of scholars to assist bridge the hole and serve each populations.”
After finishing the elective course, which is open to each freshmen and sophomore pre-nursing college students at MU in addition to any MU undergraduate pupil on the lookout for skilled expertise within the well being care trade, the scholars will apply what they’ve discovered throughout 100 hours of paid scientific coaching as a part-time nurse assistant inside MU Well being Care’s College Hospital.
I began my nursing journey as a nurse assistant, and to this present day I nonetheless really feel they do crucial jobs within the hospital for affected person care. They feed sufferers, clear their mattress sheets, assist them get to the lavatory and bathe, wash their hair and take their very important indicators. They’re the unsung heroes who present compassion to sufferers, they usually remind us that nursing is considered one of the trusted professions.”
Jennifer O’Connor, assistant educating professor within the Sinclair College of Nursing and co-investigator on the grant
Harris added the paid alternative ‘kills two birds with one stone’ by permitting college students to ‘earn whereas they be taught,’ which can cut back the necessity for college kids concerned to take out pupil loans earlier than commencement.
“We’re doing our half to handle the nursing scarcity and supply MU college students with each employable abilities and the chance to achieve real-world expertise working within the well being care trade,” Harris mentioned. “Investments in initiatives like this are important from a workforce improvement standpoint, and MU could function a mannequin for different universities wishing to create related pipelines to help hospitals and nursing properties with staffing shortages.”
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