Two Mississippi Historical Black colleges are helping nursing students from underserved communities prepare for new careers and getting public health ready to serve those communities better.

Alcorn State University and Jackson State University are following a nationwide push to prepare students from underserved communities to be part of the public health workforce. The program is meant to fill two needs revealed by COVID-19 — the need to include more people from underserved communities in the public health workforce and better utilize health data in a public health emergency.

The program is funded by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Public Health Informatics & Technology Workforce Development Program (The PHIT Workforce Development Program) to bolster the public health workforce while finding career pathways for students from underrepresented groups.

JSU received a total of $9,999,938 for the PHIT and sub-contracted $ 1 million to Alcorn to partner with them for the nursing informatics program, officials said.

As a part of the program, JSU is partnering with Alcorn State University's Cora S. Balmat School of Nursing in Natchez, Mississippi, to develop curricula and train Alcorn students in nursing informatics.

Officials said those classes will begin in the fall.

Loria Brown Gordon, Ph.D. executive director of the Public Health Informatics and Technology Workforce Development Program at Jackson State University, said the program has approximately 100 nursing students enrolled in nursing informatics courses or undergraduate courses.

"The Office of the Council for Health IT includes identifying courses, training certificate programs, certifications, and graduate and undergraduate programs to prepare students for public health informatics and technology," Gordon said. "The efforts that have moved forward today include: The infusion of nursing informatics competencies within undergraduate and graduate courses and the creation of new studies in nursing informatics.

"This is an opportunity for us to bring that to our HBCUs and then among our HBCU community, whether it's our students or our communities that are stakeholders, and help them to understand their need the need for them to have a role in what happens in our communities in addressing health disparities. These efforts will help better position underserved communities to handle all the health disparities within minority communities."

Gordon said the program began in September of 2021.

"Our collaboration with Alcorn began then but was more formalized in the spring of 2022," Gordon said. "The courses and the infusion of nursing informatics competencies into undergraduate courses began in Fall 2022."

Alcorn Professor and Dean of the School of Nursing Shirley Evers-Manly, Ph.D. said Mississippi had been plagued disproportionately with health disparities for decades.

Alcorn State University Professor and Dean of the School of Nursing Shirley Evers-Manly.

"One of the primary roles of nursing informatics is to teach our students how to analyze a widespread assortment of data to identify resolutions to health disparities from an outpatient, public health and inpatient point of view," Evers-Manly said. "Understanding nursing informatics will allow nurses to provide higher-quality care at the right time and in the right settings.

"In addition to the above, learning how to analyze data will allow them to find solutions enabling nurses to operate more cost-efficiently, evidence-based. Moreover, nurses will learn how to take data from vital signs to COVID-19 rates to provide better insight on prevention, health promotion, bedside care and discharge planning to make better decisions regarding patient care."

Evers-Manly said approximately 120 students were able to participate in COVID-19 education and prevention programs.

"We were able to provide education programs throughout the state, including the Mississippi Delta," she said. "Moreover, our graduate students have been able to integrate evidence-based information and client care technology to communicate relevant client information at community-based clinics to manage care and mitigate error in providing safe, quality client-centered care at the community level as well as at rural hospitals in Mississippi."

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Ole Miss to use gift to elevate environmental studies program

Donor Steven B. King (left) visits with Lee Cohen, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, about his $1.3 million gift to support an environmental studies program at the university. The gift will fund a new faculty position and support efforts to build an environmental studies major.

The University of Mississippi is developing a program to add faculty members to the College of Liberal Arts and develop a curriculum for a new degree major in environmental studies, according to an Ole Miss press release.

The program was made possible through a gift from alumnus Steven B. King of St. Louis.

According to the release, "King's $1.3 million gift established the Steven B. King Environmental Studies Endowment, with the resources to enhance faculty strengths in teaching, research and outreach on the environment. The university offers an environmental studies minor, founded in Fall 2009 by Ann Fisher-Wirth, a professor of English who recently retired."

King graduated in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in public administration and is currently active in several organizations such as the St. Louis Zoo Conservation Council, the Sierra Club and the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, UM officials said.

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King said in a statement that the planet is facing many challenges, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, plastic waste, pollinator decline, and more — and interest in the environment is very high, especially among young people.

"It is their generation that will be dealing with and bearing the burden of these issues," King said. "Majoring in environmental studies is an excellent way to get involved in working to solve these challenges and have a rewarding career. Companies are now attuned to environmental ramifications and are hiring people to solve these problems, so there's a demand for these professionals."

Chancellor Glenn F. Boyce said in a statement that he is thankful to King for his vision behind the gift.

"We are grateful to Steve King for providing significant resources to promote this critical interdisciplinary field of study," Boyce said. "Steve recognizes and values the expansion of our academic footprint in environmental studies. This generous gift is an investment in our students and our future so we can better address challenges related to our ecosystem."

King said he hopes the resources from his donation provide students with a better understanding of the planet and launch them into jobs, careers, and master's and doctoral programs.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Alcorn joins national nursing program to serve underserved populations