Page 65 - Healthcare News Nov/Dec 2022

STCC Nursing Program Awarded Continued Accreditation
SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Technical Community College’s (STCC) associate-degree nursing program earned continued accreditation, with the accrediting body highlighting several areas of strengths and innovations.
The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nurs- ing (ACEN) found STCC’s program to be in compliance and scheduled the next evaluation visit for spring 2030. ACEN officials visited STCC this pastr spring to evaluate the program.
When a nursing program holds ACEN accreditation, it means the program meets a set of standards and can be trusted to deliver quality education.
“The administrative and fiscal support for the program in all facets, including faculty ratios, additional adjunct support, and the funds for the simulation center, skills labs, and equipment were all beyond impressive,” stated Marsal Stoll, ACEN CEO, in an email to STCC President John Cook and Lisa Fugiel, assistant dean and Nursing director in the School of Health and Patient Simulation.
“We are thrilled,” Fugiel said. “Our ACEN site visitors not only found zero areas in need of development or
improvement, but they noted two areas of strength. We are told it’s unusual to be recognized for even one area of strength; to get recognized for two is rare. I’m proud of our faculty and staff for helping to make us shine. Future students can feel confident knowing they are studying in a high-quality nursing program.”
Christopher Scott, dean of the School of Health and Patient Simulation, added that “this would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of Director Fugiel and the faculty and staff in the nursing program. I am delighted to see the program not only was awarded accreditation, but that ACEN highlighted many areas of strength.”
The ACEN board of commissioners identified STCC’s commitment to students and resources as areas of strength.
“The number of resources that STCC offers to all stu- dents is impressive,” according to Stoll’s letter, which cited college resources that deliver food and housing assistance to students.
ACEN noted that the Center for Access Services at
STCC is centrally located on campus. In addition, ACEN noted that all student services are housed in one large building, the Ira Rubenzahl Student Learning Commons.
“College administrators and nursing faculty firmly believe their mission is to transform the lives of students,” Stoll wrote.
Another strength of the program is the addition of two IT-support personnel who keep simulation equipment and virtual reality areas working, which ACEN noted as above and beyond what is typical of a community-college nursing program.
ACEN also highlighted many aspects of the patient- simulation labs, known as the SIMS Medical Center, where robotic patients controlled by STCC staff provide an immersive, real-world experience for students. ACEN noted that the simulation technology provides “a positive and innovative learning environment for student nurses.”
Healthcare Workers to Access $130 Million Loan-repayment Program
BOSTON — The Baker-Polito admin- istration announced a significant step
in addressing the healthcare workforce shortage by contracting with the Mas- sachusetts League of Community Health Centers to implement a $130 million loan-repayment program to support and retain the behavioral-health and primary- care workforce. Funding comes from the American Rescue Plan Act and the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Trust Fund.
Applications will be open in December to qualifying employees, including but not limited to social workers, primary- care physicians, psychiatrists, nurses, substance-use recovery coaches, and case managers who work at community health centers, community mental-health cen-
ters, psychiatric units in acute -care hos- pitals, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, or substance-use treatment programs. Loans eligible for repayment in this application process include government loans made by federal, state, county or city agencies and commercial loans from banks, credit unions, savings and loan associations, insurance companies, schools, and other financial or credit institutions.
“The pandemic has exacerbated work- force shortages across the healthcare and human-services sector in both the public and private markets, placing significant stress on our healthcare providers, their staff, and our Massachusetts residents seeking care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said. “Through
this program, we are providing tangible support to sustain them in this high- demand work.”
Loan-repayment awards will range between $12,500 and $300,000 per indi- vidual depending on their occupation, job setting, academic degree level attained, and whether the individual works part- time or full-time.
Applicants will be prioritized to receive an award if they meet one of the following criteria:
• The applicant can communicate with patients and provide care in a language other than English, and that skill matches the needs of the location where the ap- plicant works;
• The applicant has demonstrated a
commitment to providing clinical care to historically medically underserved patients;
• The applicant works or resides in a community prioritized in the COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Initiative: Boston, Brock- ton, Chelsea, Everett, Fall River, Fitch- burg, Framingham, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Leominster, Lowell, Lynn, Mal- den, Methuen, New Bedford, Randolph, Revere, Springfield, or Worcester; or
• The applicant works in a designated community behavioral-health center.
Information about how to apply will be made available by the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers in December.
Massachusetts to Establish Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has been selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as one of five national recipients to establish a Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence to foster and improve innovation and technical capacity to better prevent and respond to infectious-disease outbreaks.
The funding of $25 million over a five-year period will establish DPH as a regional center for developing state public-health laboratory genomics capability and epide- miologic application of genomics to public health. DPH’s partners include the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as lead academic partner along with Boston University, Yale University, Fathom Information Design, Massachu- setts General Hospital, and Theiagen Genomics.
The four other regional centers designated by the CDC are the Georgia Department of Public Health, the Min-
nesota Department of Health, the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services, and the Washington State Department of Health. Combined, these Centers of Excellence will serve as a network to perform a landscape analysis of gaps, needs, and opportunities for genomics
in the U.S. public-health system; pilot and implement genomics technologies and applications for public health; educate and train health departments on the use of ge- nomics; and prepare for and respond to infectious-disease threats.
“We have learned a lot about the power of genomics, particularly the role of viral variants in disease outbreaks,” Public Health Commissioner Margret Cooke said. “This new funding and collaboration will help us build on what we’ve learned responding to COVID-19, as well as to Zika, mumps, hepatitis A, and other infections of public-health importance.”
Nationally, a total of $1.7 billion in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act is helping to support current and future genomic surveillance. These funds include $400 million for innovation, and approximately $90 mil- lion of this amount will support the Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence network over the next five years.
“The Massachusetts COVID-19 response has relied
on our many colleague laboratories, institutions, and organizations, including universities and partners in the medical, public-health, and scientific community,” said DPH Assistant Commissioner Kevin Cranston, director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences. “We believe this Center of Excellence will spur new in- novation and inform how we address future public-health threats.”
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
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