Collaboration
CAN KNOWLEDGE REALLY CHANGE YOUR WORLD?
mproving health through new models for access and delivery of patient care: Using the
collective experience of its renowned faculty, the school is creating the partnerships to advance interprofessional teaching, research and service, opening opportunities for collaborative programs, shared resources, faculty practice, care redesign, professional development, and global partnerships.
D’Ann Somerall (far right) at the UAB School of Nursing’s Foundry Clinic
Transforming Models QUALITY OF CARE
Change through access The School of Nursing’s missions of research, education and service come together in a powerful way through its collaborative partnerships. Clinical settings provide the venue for faculty practice, hands-on education for students, and ground-breaking research that leads to new models of care. In 2011, the School of Nursing partnered with MPOWER Ministries to create a nurse-managed PATH (Providing Access to Healthcare) Clinic, led by Cynthia Selleck. The school has received a three-year, $1.4 million HRSA grant to expand clinic hours, dramatically increase patient volume, and develop an interprofessional, team-based practice model. Recently, the school brought its nurse-managed clinic model to The Foundry Clinic, part of The Foundry Rescue Mission and Recovery Center in Bessemer, Ala. Under the leadership of Linda Roussel, the school provides three faculty members who are certified nurse practitioners to staff the clinic four days per week. Besides providing free care to 14 | UAB SCHOOL OF NURSING
residents in The Foundry’s year-long addiction treatment program, the clinic also provides quality, affordable services to patients in the surrounding community. “At the PATH Clinic, which is now well established, we’re providing very broad-based care for an underserved community, with excellent results,” Selleck said. “I think the same will happen at The Foundry. The next step is to look beyond these individual clinics and think strategically about this global umbrella we’re creating for medically needy people in Jefferson County, Alabama.” Change through satisfaction Collaborative partnerships also offer support to practicing nurses. Led by UAB Hospital, the 12-month UAB Nurse Residency Program helps new nurses adapt to the profession and to hospital culture. School of Nursing faculty member Sharon Hamilton, MSN, co-coordinates the program with Gwendolyn Pernell, MSN, RN. “There’s significant turnover among new nurses— and a significant loss to hospitals, which invest $50,000 to $80,000 in orientation for each new nurse,” Selleck explained. “But there’s data to show that beginning nurses who go through a residency program—who are better supported and educated, who are infused into the culture of their particular institution, and who have the opportunity to share with fellow nurses in a similar stage in their careers—are less likely to leave.” To further address potential workforce issues, the School of Nursing and UAB Hospital created the Lead-