Wednesday, March 26, 2003
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Wednesday, March 26, 2003 |
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CCSU program increasing minority involvement in health care industry
If there is one job market that experts agree will be in a growth phase over the next few years, it's the health care industry. The combination of the graying of America and a severe shortage of trained nurses has led the federal government, health care institutions and higher education to look for creative ways to meet the growing demand for professionals. This is especially true among minority professionals in the State of Georgia, where, as of Dec. 1997, just 15.4 percent of the registered nurse work force were minorities. One of the institutions that has already begun not one, but two, programs to address the issue of nursing workforce diversity is Clayton College & State University. Through two grants funded by the Division of Nursing in the Bureau of Health Professions within Department of Health and Human Services, Clayton State has committed more than $1.5 million to recruiting and training minority nurses. The "Preparing the Next Generation of Nurses" grant provides $895,000 to allow Clayton State to go into high schools to recruit juniors and seniors who are interested in nursing or other health-related occupations. These high school students will be enrolled in special summer programs and will be paid a stipend to attend those programs. Representatives of Clayton State's School of Health Sciences are currently meeting with health occupation teachers in high schools primarily, though not exclusively, in Clayton County to identify interested students. "We will start this semester tutoring these students in whatever their areas of academic weakness might be," said Dr. Lydia McAllister, acting dean of the School of Health Sciences and director of the Preparing the Next Generation project. "We will also assign a peer mentor to each one of them." Minority students from the Preparing for the Next Generation project will hopefully be able to carry over their skills and interest into Clayton State's Nursing program, specifically, the "Workforce Diversity in Nursing for the New Millennium" program for current Clayton State students that is funded by a $650,000 Health and Human Services grant. This program takes Clayton State students and enrolls them in the University's Summer Opportunity for Success (SOS) program, a 10-week academic skills enrichment program that is held during the summer semester. The program enables students interested in pursuing a career in the nursing profession to be better prepared to enter the nursing program and to ultimately become successful registered nurses. Students in SOS will have opportunities to learn the role of professional nursing firsthand and in a variety of health care settings. Like the Next Generation program, SOS also offers a stipend to those who qualify. For more information
on both grant programs, go to the Clayton State School of Health Sciences
Web site at http://healthsci.clayton.edu/.
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