The University of South Dakota (USD) announced they will receive $1 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant to increase the number of nurses in rural and underserved areas of South Dakota.
The $1,050,000 million dollar grant will be disbursed in increments of $350,000 per year for the next three years and will be managed by the USD Nursing Assistant Professor and Associate Chair Anne Kleinhesselink and Chair Anne Pithan.
Becky Heisinger, Director of Quality Integration and grant manager at SDAHO is excited about the HRSA grant and the help it might provide to our state’s healthcare workforce needs. “The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations is excited to be part of this HRSA grant opportunity, which will provide a needed boost to our state’s nursing workforce shortage.”
With the HRSA grant, USD Nursing will create training models to strengthen skills and work to increase the diversity of the nursing workforce, recruiting students from varied backgrounds, including students from tribal lands and rural areas, who will then go on to practice in South Dakota’s underserved communities spanning the entire state.
The training developed by USD Nursing will provide students with intensive, real-world experiences and perspective of the nursing role in rural clinical settings, including working with experienced professionals in a variety of departments. The students will gain a better understanding of the complexity of rural nursing to include the unique knowledge and skills necessary for practice; exposure which will also improve recruitment and retention of nurses to underserved areas.
By the end of the grant term, which is September 2025, USD nursing will:
- Increase number of USD nursing graduates practicing in acute care settings in underserved communities by 5% annually.
- Increase the confidence of current and future nurses by developing their leadership, communication, and critical thinking skills.
- Increase the number of USD nursing students from underserved communities by 5%.
- Increase the number of Native American nursing students at USD by 5%.
- Train 24 nursing students annually in acute care settings in underserved communities.
Students participating in the clinical experience at a rural health facility will partner with clinical experts to disseminate what they have learned to the current and future workforce by offering ECHO series to educate on incorporating health equity, culturally sensitive and team-based care into practice.
To read the complete article from the University of South Dakota, click here.
