TEMPLE, Texas — (July 28, 2010) — Texas-based Scott & White Healthcare (sw.org) has received three grants that provide education support to working nursing students, set up a senior health research center, and establish systems for treating child abuse and educating those who treat it.
The three grants, totaling nearly $2 million, include:
- Nursing education. In partnership with Temple College and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, some $563,000 from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will be available to nursing students at any level of their education to pay for tuition as well as allow them time off work to attend school. The two-year grant helps nursing students advance their education and careers at the same time. Officials anticipate the grants will result in an additional 550 nursing students in Texas as a result.
- Senior health research. A $995,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health will help establish the Community Research Center for Senior Health. Scott & White Healthcare, Texas A&M School of Rural Public Health and the Texas aging service network will form a joint venture to create and support the Community Research Center for Senior Health. The Center will develop, implement, evaluate and disseminate evidence-based solutions to social and behavior issues adversely affecting older people in the community.
- Child abuse research/education. Scott & White Healthcare's Child Abuse Support Center at Children's Hospital at Scott & White will use the $312,500 grant from the Texas Department of State Health Services to establish MEDCARES, or the Medical Child Abuse Resources and Education System. Included in the projects conducted under this grant will be a partnership with Fort Hood's Darnall Army Community Hospital to create education programs on shaken baby prevention for Central Texas and to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing child abuse fatalities in Bell County, Texas. In addition, Scott & White's Child Abuse Support Center will add medical staff to allow for 24 hour a day treatment of child abuse issues and injuries.
"We're pleased and encouraged that our system and staff have been selected to lead this research into some of society's most pressing issues: nurse education and the health and welfare of our most vulnerable: senior citizens and children," said Donald E. Wesson, chief academic officer at Scott & White Healthcare, and vice dean, Temple Campus, Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. "We look forward to sharing the results of these grants with the Central Texas community."
About Scott & White Healthcare (sw.org)
Scott & White Healthcare is a non-profit collaborative health care system established in 1897 and is the principal clinical teaching facility affiliated with the Texas A&M College of Medicine, with a Temple campus that includes a four-year medical curriculum. Along with its 636-bed flagship hospital and clinic facility in Temple, Texas, Scott & White includes 9 other hospitals or hospital partners, and over 60 clinic locations throughout Central Texas. With more than 800 physicians and scientists, Scott & White has become one of the nation's largest multi-specialty group practice systems.