For immediate release: November 19, 2007
Contact: Anne McMillin, APR
Office: 775-682-9254
Mobile 702-292-4247
amcmillin@medicine.nevada.edu
University of Nevada School of Medicine's Patricia Swager
receives grant for implementing geriatrics training
Department of Health and Human Services awards grant for $648,000
RENO, Nev.— Patricia Swager, M.Ed., of the University of Nevada School of Medicine’s Nevada Geriatric Education Center recently received an education grant to infuse geriatrics training in rural and underserved clinical settings and promote faculty development in health literacy and geriatrics.
The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration awarded the grant at $216,000 per year for a three-year period that began September 1, 2007. The total grant award is $648,000.
“Nevada’s population of adults aged 65 and older increased by 72 percent and people ages 85 and older have increased 128 percent,” Swager said. “Nevada is recognized as having the highest percentage growth rate in the nation. We also have critical shortage in most health care disciplines and especially those (medical professionals) who have completed training in geriatrics.”
The grant will help fund development of initiatives to address the health issues associated with the bludgeoning growth of elders in Nevada. Those initiatives include developing clinical geriatrics training in rural and underserved settings that target interdisciplinary teams of students and health care professionals in the fields of medicine, nursing, social work, counseling, nutrition, psychology and dentistry (among others). The faculty development component with emphasis in health literacy and geriatrics will be developed through a “mini-fellowship” with the goal of improving patient outcomes.
The program will be spearheaded through the University of Nevada School of Medicine’s Center for Education and Health Services Outreach and its Nevada Geriatric Education Center with Swager as the principal investigator and director. The Nevada Geriatric Education Center is a joint program of the University of Nevada School of Medicine and the Sanford Center for Aging.
As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in healthcare, medical education and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine includes 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally recognized departments in basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. The more than 185 doctors of University Health System, the school’s clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with eight physician offices in the Reno/Sparks area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is committed to a best practices approach to medicine and is dedicated to exceptional healthcare for Nevada now and in the future. For more information visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.