State grants will support nursing education programs

The Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing was recently awarded grants for $240,000 and $80,000 through the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act of the California Office of Statewide Health Planning & Development. Both are designed to bolster programs aimed at educating nurses to serve in areas of unmet need and to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the healthcare professions. The Song-Brown funds will support practicing faculty who are working side by side with nurse-practitioner students to provide care to extremely vulnerable populations in medically underserved areas. “The goal of our effort is to enable our faculty to role-model culturally respectful care in clinical practice,” said Susan Tiso, a clinical professor of nursing. “Additionally, the funding will help expand our standardized patient exams with real patients who have complex chronic diseases complicated by the social determinants of health. This experiential training will ensure our students are prepared for practice at graduation.” The Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act, or the Song-Brown Program, was established in 1973 to improve the provision of medical services to the people of California.