EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (March 2, 2023) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State College and Cone Well being as we speak signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that strengthens their partnerships in scientific schooling, analysis and strategic workforce improvement.
To realize these objectives, the 2 establishments have developed a joint steering committee to establish, develop, implement and consider precedence initiatives.
“Our partnership has enriched this neighborhood in so some ways, from the well being professionals we graduate at A&T who then go into Cone Well being settings to serve the general public, to the quite a few methods we collaborate towards larger well being fairness all through the Piedmont Triad,” mentioned Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. “That work is important as we collectively search to handle and enhance processes and outcomes which have deprived particular communities and populations for generations. Due to all that now we have achieved beforehand, the brand new MOU portends nicely for our college students and for the lots of of 1000’s of sufferers and households served by each our establishments every year.”
Cone Well being has been a long-standing companion for scientific coaching of scholars within the B.S.N. program at N.C. A&T. This MOU units forth a broad framework for future cooperation at a time when the college is increasing its scientific diploma choices and advancing multidisciplinary crew analysis approaches to alleviate well being disparities.
A current addition to the scientific diploma applications at A&T is an M.S. in doctor assistant (PA) research authorized by the UNC Board of Governors in October 2022. Housed within the John R. and Kathy R. Hairston School of Well being and Human Sciences, the PA program will search accreditation by way of the Accreditation Assessment Fee on Training for the Doctor Assistant (ARC-PA), and can start to recruit college students as soon as the method is full.
A&T has additionally obtained preliminary authorization to develop a doctoral nurse practitioner (DNP) program that focuses on nursing management and psychiatry/psychological well being. As soon as established, these two applications will place the college to contribute considerably to the coaching of well being care staff with technological and cultural competency abilities to extra successfully serve minority communities.
“North Carolina A&T’s aspirations embody collaborative analysis, entrepreneurial innovation and new requirements of public service and neighborhood engagement,” mentioned Provost and Government Vice Chancellor of Tutorial Affairs Tonya Smith-Jackson, Ph.D. “By enhancing our relationship with Cone Well being, we are going to enhance alternatives for college students pursuing well being care careers and for college students in different disciplines, corresponding to enterprise, know-how, engineering and schooling.
“Our college is making ready future generations of Aggies to function catalysts for improved well being outcomes amongst underserved populations and, in flip, optimistic financial progress in our neighborhood.”
A lot of the infrastructure for scientific coaching is already in place. A&T and Cone Well being, together with UNC-Greensboro and Guilford Technical Neighborhood School, are partnered by way of Union Sq. in downtown Greensboro. Opened in 2016, Union Sq. is a state-of-the-art facility designed to teach nurses from the affiliate to doctoral diploma ranges. Additionally it is used for the continuing schooling of Cone Well being physicians.
In 2020, A&T and Cone Well being had been amongst 10 organizations receiving $25,000 for work to check a well being fairness toolkit, addressing nursing’s position in constructing well being fairness and well-being and selling a tradition of well being. The grant was awarded as a part of the Way forward for Nursing: Marketing campaign for Motion, an initiative of AARP Basis, AARP and the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis.
A&T and Cone Well being additionally collaborate to enhance toddler well being outcomes. In Spring 2022, a lactation clinic inside Cone Well being’s MedCenter for Ladies – a three way partnership between A&T and Cone Well being – opened to serve nursing moms and households searching for recommendation and assist. It’s staffed primarily by college students and graduates from the lactation certificates program, which is a part of the college’s School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. The lactation certificates program is considered one of solely two lactation applications housed at a traditionally Black school or college (HBCU), considered one of solely 9 such applications on this planet and one of many few that requires an undergraduate diploma first. The final word aim is to coach extra lactation consultants who appear to be the households they serve and normalize breastfeeding amongst ladies of colour.
Cone Well being has been a helpful scientific analysis companion for A&T school, leveraging the complementary sources and experience at every establishment. Beginning in 2013, the Cone Well being Neighborhood Clinic led by Olu Jegede, M.D., vice chairman scientific care-health fairness, applied a analysis program underneath the Minority Males’s Well being Initiative (MMHI) led by Hairston School Dean Elimelda Moige Ongeri, Ph.D., and Robert Newman, Ph.D., distinguished professor of biology within the School of Science and Expertise, that focuses on diabetic kidney illness. The MMHI created coalitions with native faith-based communities to advance diabetes well being literacy amongst African American males.
Moreover, Stephanie Teixeira-Poit, Ph.D., an affiliate professor within the Hairston School’s Division of Sociology and Social Work, is performing a few of her analysis on neonatal intensive care items at Cone Well being. She is utilizing a $568,960 Nationwide Institutes of Well being grant she obtained final yr to conduct the research with a crew that contains co-investigators Bonnie Fields, Ph.D., scientific affiliate professor in A&T’s College of Nursing, and Marjorie Jenkins, Ph.D., director of nursing analysis at Cone Well being.
Future analysis collaborations will leverage sources at A&T’s lately established Middle of Excellence in Integrative Well being Disparities and Fairness Analysis and Cone Well being‘s Middle of Well being Fairness with joint improvement of analysis grant proposals.
A&T has loved a long-standing partnership with Cone Well being’s Piedmont Space Well being Training Middle, previously referred to as the Greensboro Space Well being Training Middle, which has supported no fewer than 5 main initiatives designed to enhance pupil preparedness and success way back to 2008. These applications present publicity to well being careers and analysis for center college, highschool, school {and professional} college college students.
The influence of A&T and Cone Well being collaborations on communities in Greensboro was maybe most evident throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with the Guilford Division of Well being and Human Providers, they collectively opened a COVID-19 vaccination and testing clinic on the A&T campus. This initiative promoted uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations particularly within the Black neighborhood, mitigated the consequences of the worldwide pandemic and saved lives and livelihoods.
“For many years, Cone Well being and North Carolina A&T partnered on assembly the well being care wants of individuals throughout the Triad,” mentioned Cone Well being CEO Mary Jo Cagle, M.D. “Immediately’s actions broaden our work past the wants of as we speak to working towards more healthy tomorrows, richer alternatives for college students and longer and higher lives in each neighborhood we serve.”
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State College Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. shakes arms with Cone Well being CEO Mary Jo Cagle, M.D., Thursday, March 2, on the college.
