Grant Programs at Wegmans School of Nursing Receive Nearly $1M in Funding to Focus on Opioid Abuse Treatment
Three grant programs through the Wegmans School of Nursing at St. John Fisher College have received nearly $1 million in funding from two federal agencies.
Each of the programs address the opioid crisis, from training nurses on how to recognize and treat potential substance abuse disorders to encouraging integrated care models between physicians, mental health counselors, and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners.
“We have developed these programs in direct response to a real crisis in our community and in collaboration with academic partners at Rochester Regional Health System and the Anthony Jordan Health Center,” said Dr. Dianne Cooney Miner, dean of the School of Nursing. “These grants are a recognition of the quality of our programs in educating the health care workforce in critical shortage areas while focusing on treating this serious public health issue.”
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Funding
In 2015, the College was awarded a $867,000 grant from Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) program offered through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The grant is now in its third year of funding a collaboration between the School of Nursing and the Wegmans School of Pharmacy to co-train students on providing substance abuse screenings, interventions, and referrals to treatment.
In part, because if the success demonstrated by that grant, the School of Nursing was awarded $449,673 from the Providers Clinical Support System-Universities (PCSS-Universities) program offered through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to train nurse practitioners to earn a waiver that allows them to prescribe medication used to treat substance abuse disorders. With these funds, the School will integrate waiver-related requirements into its curriculum and effectively prepare its graduates to apply for the federal waiver to prescribe medication-assisted treatment for persons with opioid addiction.
“Our community needs more practitioners who are familiar with opioid addiction, and more practitioners who are able to treat addiction, particularly in primary care settings where it might be less stigmatizing,” said Dr. Kathy Plum, who said that several community partners will help the School deliver the waiver training, including shadowing prescribers. “By the end of three years, all students admitted this fall and those entering going forward, will be qualified to apply for the waiver at the time of their graduation.”
Plum also said that faculty and preceptors will be encouraged to take existing waiver training with the grant partner, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, along with the shadowing experiences and enhanced content regarding local resources that will be provided to the students. Grant partners Huther Doyle, Rochester Regional Health System, and Jordan Health will provide the shadowing experiences.
HRSA Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Program Grant
A $1.2 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Advanced Nursing Education Workforce (ANEW) Program, awarded in 2017, was given a one-time administrative supplement of an additional $139,665. The ANEW grant has expanded the School’s immersive clinical training program and academic partnerships, which prepare nurse practitioner students for clinical practice in medically underrepresented areas.
In addition, the program provides tuition and traineeship support for nurse practitioner students enrolled in the School’s master’s and doctoral level programs. By placing students in rural clinics and health care facilities, the traineeship aims to increase the skill level of the primary care workforce to meet the needs of underserved and at-risk populations.
“The supplemental grant funding will allow us to create a series of educational simulations for our graduate students on how to effectively evaluate and manage opioid use disorders (OUD) in clinical practice,” said Dr. Colleen Donegan, who also serves as director of the School’s nursing graduate programs.
HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program Grant
Last year, the School launched an effort to emphasize integrated behavioral and physical health care in its mental health counseling and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner programs (PMHNP) thanks to a $1.9 million grant from the HRSA’s Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program. This fall, that grant was awarded $397,424 in supplemental funds with the specific purpose of providing meaningful training experiences and curriculum enhancements in the prevention and treatment of opioid use in integrated health care settings, a model that brings together primary medical and mental health care providers in a meaningful way that allows for more effective multidisciplinary communication and treatment planning.
Over the next two years, the grant will provide 18 mental health counseling students and two PMHNP students with $10,000 stipends while in their final fieldwork placements in integrated settings at either Rochester Regional Health or Anthony Jordan Health. This will increase the total number of stipends available through the HRSA BHWET grant so that the mental health counseling program can provide 100 percent of its students with stipends.
The supplemental grant also resulted in $200,000 awards for both Rochester Regional Health and Jordan Health to partner with the School on various activities, including a new training with a “train the trainer” component, enhanced curriculum in OUD prevention and treatment, and a possible simulation that uses interactive media to provide meaningful and safe opportunities for students and clinicians learning skills in OUD to make mistakes and refine their skills safely even after grant funding runs out. Practitioners at both partner agencies will collaborate to develop the trainings with expert consultation.
“We are excited to expand our partnership with the Wegmans School of Nursing in order to grow our local health care workforce in providing quality comprehensive health care to our city’s underserved communities,” said Dr. Laurie Donohue, chief medical officer at Jordan Health. “The impact of mental health and addiction issues on our families is tremendous. Training health care professionals to deal with these issues in a compassionate and effective manner will ultimately improve the health of our entire community.”
Dr. Rob Rice, associate professor of mental health counseling, agrees.
“The field is moving in the direction of having mental health and medical professionals working together in a more integrated way,” said Rice. “Through this grant, our students are on the cutting-edge of receiving training to deliver this model of care.”
The St. John Fisher College ANEW project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number T94HP30916 of the Advanced Nursing Education Workforce (ANEW) program for $1,210,542 over two years (base award) and $139,665 for the supplement. The information or content and conclusions in this press release are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.
The St. John Fisher College BHWET project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number M01HP31343 of the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program for $1,885,910 over four years (base award) and $397,424 for the supplement. The information or content and conclusions in this press release are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.
The St. John Fisher College PCSS-Universities project is supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number 1H79T1081665 of the Providers Clinical Support System-Universities Program for $449,673 over three years. The information or content and conclusions in this press release are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.
The St. John Fisher College SBIRT project is supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number 1H70T1025948 of the SBIRT-Student Training Program for $867,000 over three years. The information or content and conclusions in this press release are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.