August • 2017
Page 4
Nursingmatters
Native American students to see support Jennifer Garrett University of Wisconsin
Two faculty members at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing have received a $1.3 million federal grant to develop a comprehensive system of support services that will help admit, retain and graduate 30 Native American nursing students through the next four years. Audrey Tluczek, an associate professor of nursing, and Mel Freitag, the school’s director of diversity initiatives, will lead the project, Linda Scott called “Success Through Recruitment/Retention, Engagement, and Mentorship (STREAM) for American Indian Students Pursuing Nursing Careers.” The project aligns with a Wisconsin Center for Nursing goal of expanding the diversity of the nursing workforce to mirror the diversity of the population it serves. The goal is based on evidence showing that increasing diversity in the nursing workforce improves access to health care and leads to better health outcomes for underrepresented groups, including Native Americans. Currently the Wisconsin nursing workforce is 94 percent white, while the Wisconsin population is only 79 percent white. About 90 percent of nurses who provide services in Wisconsin tribal health facilities are white; the vast majority of patients are American Indian. “This project is vital for the state, as we believe it can make a real difference in improving health outcomes within American Indian populations by increasing the number of Native nurses in these communities,” said Linda D. Scott, dean of the School of Nursing. “This grant validates the important relationships already forged by Dr. Tluczek and Dr. Freitag with Wisconsin American Indian communities. It reflects the UW-Madison School of Nursing’s commitment to admitting, educating and graduating students from diverse backgrounds in an effort to better serve
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
Signe Skott Cooper Hall is the home of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Nursing.
all Wisconsin residents and eliminate the health disparities that many populations experience.” All 12 Wisconsin tribes – 11 federally recognized and one state-recognized – are federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas. The grant, awarded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, builds on a previous community-academic partnership project among the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, the UW-Madison School of Nursing, and UW-Population Health Institute, which was funded by the Wisconsin Partnership Program. One of the objectives of that project, “Increasing
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All 12 Wisconsin tribes – 11 federally recognized and one state-recognized – are federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas.