HEALTH

Mobile Nursing for Healthier Communities

To create healthier populations and reach rural, medically underserved regions, researchers from FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing are taking their services on the road with a nurse-led mobile health unit.

The researchers received a four-year, $3.9 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the project, titled “Caring-based Community & Academic Relationships for Excellence (CARE): Nurse-led Mobile Health Unit.”

The nurse-led mobile health unit will provide primary and mental health care services in underserved communities of Belle Glade and West Palm Beach, including families with children, veterans, homeless persons, women and children sheltering from domestic violence, and young persons who have aged out of the foster care system, which represent the populations at highest risk for health disparities and low literacy.

The project is in partnership with the FAU/Northwest Community Health Alliance (NCHA) Community Health Center as well as other community partners, and will also support nursing students earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.

“Rather than expecting our medically underserved patients to come to our FAU/NCHA Community Health Center for their health care needs, with this important HRSA grant, we will now be able to go to them,” said Safiya George, Ph.D., dean, FAU Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing. “Importantly, by bringing our mobile health unit to our region’s rural and underserved communities, our CARE nursing students will have the opportunity to experience firsthand the impact of the social determinants of health.”

Transformational $10 Million Gift Establishes Holli Rockwell Trubinsky Eminent Dean in Nursing

FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing received an estate pledge of $10 million from Holli Rockwell Trubinsky and Joseph Trubinsky to establish the Holli Rockwell Trubinsky Eminent Dean in Nursing. Safiya George, Ph.D., is the inaugural recipient of this gift, one of the largest endowed nursing deanships in the country. It will strengthen FAU’s ability to retain and recruit extraordinary leaders who elevate the college locally, regionally and nationally.

“Through my work as a nurse and having served on the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing Advisory Board, I am acutely aware of the importance and impact nurses have in health care,” said Holli Rockwell Trubinsky. “Ensuring FAU’s ability to recruit and sustain extraordinary leaders who will train future generations of nurses is a priority and passion.”

The need for a well-trained nursing workforce is urgent, as Florida faces a statewide nursing shortage. This endowment provides crucial philanthropic support to combat these shortages. Supporting FAU’s mission to train a distinguished nursing workforce, recognized for high-quality clinical skills and person-centered care, the Trubinskys serve as a catalyst for generations of positive change. Their estate gift provides the dean with vital resources to respond to the changing needs of nurses amidst a dynamic health care landscape.

“The Trubinsky gift truly is transformational for the College of Nursing,” George said. “The current nursing shortage throughout the health care industry has reached a critical point, and this gift, once realized, will help us draw the best and brightest to FAU, and create positive and significant impacts on the nursing profession in the future.”

The Trubinsky gift also advances the strategic priority of the FAU Health Network, addressing health care professional shortages to improve the lives of citizens in South Florida and beyond.