New funding in the amount of $1,103,048 from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's Emergency and Trauma Care Education Partnership (ETEP) grants program has been awarded to Elda G. Ramirez, Ph.D., R.N., associate professor of clinical nursing in the Department of Acute and Continuing Care. The new grant award for FY 2014-15 will help support the UTHealth School of Nursing's post-master's emergency/trauma care (ETC) program, of which Ramirez is the track director.
"This grant from the THECB will help move the program online by 2015," said Ramirez. "The majority of the funding will go to the students to support the clinical time required for the successful completion of the course."
ETC is a specialty concentration curriculum that results in a post-master's certificate, or it can be completed concurrently with several of the nursing school's nurse practitioner programs and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) degree.
The ETEP was established by Senate Bill 7, passed by the 82nd Texas Legislature, authorizing $4.5 million in Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015 to administer the program and to provide grant awards for partnerships between hospitals and graduate medical education and graduate nursing programs. Partnerships grants such as the one just received by Ramirez are intended to increase the educational experiences in emergency and trauma care for registered nurses pursuing a graduate degree or certificate.
"Hospitals, more and more, need someone who specializes," UTHealth School of Nursing Dean Patricia L. Starck, Ph.D., R.N., recently told the HealthLEADER online wellness magazine. "Hospital care is getting more intense…a better educated nursing population results in better outcomes for patients."