August 15, 2020
New Online Innovations Through CARES Act Funding
The UW School of Nursing’s NEPQR Program was recently awarded supplemental CARES Act funding. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic Security (CARES) Act from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) provides instrumental funding to train health professionals to provide telehealth-enabled COVID-19 screening and testing, case management, and outpatient care or to maintain primary care functionality away from physical sites. The CARES supplemental funding supports workforce training activities necessary to transition the in-person clinical training of students and clinical to provide telehealth and other distant care services.
This initiative, in partnership with the existing NEPQR Partnerships in Ambulatory Care, is called the UW School of Nursing Telehealth Advancement for COVID-Impacted Training (UW-TACT). The UW-TACT project, led by Dr. Diana Buchanan, will meet all three program goals to Prevent, Prepare, and Respond to COVID-19. Prevent) the project will develop telehealth clinical opportunities to support social distancing by our students and faculty, and to ensure that safe clinical training opportunities are available. Prepare) the project will involve the development of training modules to prepare students for engaging in telehealth and meeting clinical needs that have arisen directly due to COVID-19. Respond) the project will support safe involvement of students in response to COVID-19 through participation in public health programs such as a COVID-19 call center, contact tracing, and follow-up consultation.
Over the next year, the project team will work to offer alternative opportunities for students to experience and deliver telehealth clinical services and develop four online modules, outlined below. In addition, the UW-TACT team is developing just-in-time training for providing psychological first aid.
Online Modules:
- Student orientation to RN-Level telehealth practice
- Telehealth needs and strategies for working with older adults
- Psychological first aid in the context of telehealth and the Covid-19 pandemic
- Telehealth engagement through the electronic health record and inbox
The UW-TACT project is meeting ongoing educational challenges as our undergraduate clinical program maintain social distancing to reduce COVID-19 risk. This funding will help to support innovative telehealth and simulation offerings for UW BSN students.
For more information or questions, please contact the project lead, Diana Buchanan, at dmtaibi@uw.edu.
