The 2012 LOSS (Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors) Conference will be held May 31 - June 1, 2012 in Lincoln, Nebraska. Dr. Frank Campbell, a leading expert in Suicidology along with other experts, will share the lessons learned in years of helping survivors of suicide, how sudden traumatic loss impacts survivors and grief through the different developmental stages.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MOREThrough a collaborative partnership with the Wide River Technology Extension Center (TEC), the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center is coordinating efforts among Nebraska’s post-secondary institutions to promote integration of health IT into the initial and ongoing training of health professionals and support staff. The Workforce Development project is a component of the Wide River TEC’s overall goal to furnish education, outreach, and technical assistance, to help health care providers in Nebraska select, successfully implement, and meaningfully use certified EHR technology. Funding for Wide River TEC’s activities (including the Workforce Development component being administered by the Public Policy Center) come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), which includes provisions to promote meaningful use of health IT to improve the quality and value of American health care.
Providers seeking to meaningfully use EHRs face a variety of challenging tasks. Those tasks include assessing needs, selecting and negotiating with a system vendor or reseller, implementing project management, and instituting workflow changes to improve clinical performance and ultimately, outcomes. Past experience has shown that robust local technical assistance can result in effective implementation of EHRs and quality improvement throughout a defined geographic area.
The Workforce Development project recognizes that healthcare organizations need a trained workforce to successfully implement and operate EHRs to achieve meaningful use. The Public Policy Center’s goals for the Workforce Development project are:
1. Enhancing students’ exposure to electronic health records through coursework.
An electronic health records (EHR) curriculum development award competition will be established during the first two years of the Wide River TEC Workforce Development project. The competition will be open to instructors across the state who teach at accredited Nebraska post-secondary institutions. The awards will support development of courses new to the instructor’s campus or significant revisions to existing courses, which cannot be funded from existing divisional or departmental budgets. Curriculum development can include didactic instruction as well as substantial incorporation of class projects or service learning projects in the community. It is expected that the average award will be $3,000.
2. Bridging electronic health records education and training with other related initiatives.
Across the United States, healthcare is a dominant and growing employment opportunity. In Nebraska, rural areas, in particular suffer from a lack of qualified health care providers to fill vacancies. The needs and opportunities are great. Along with the institution-specific efforts of identifying and promoting healthcare as a promising career opportunity, the Public Policy Center will actively coordinate with other efforts to broaden the reach to potential members of the workforce.
3. Creating shared learning among instructors delivering health information technology coursework. Instructors who receive the EHR curriculum development awards and others active in designing and delivering coursework using health IT will be invited to attend a statewide EHR curriculum development conference. The conference will enable instructors to share strategies and results of their experiences, and identify best practices. Presentations are available on the conference website.
The Workforce Development activities are guided by the Workforce Development Advisory Group. Workgroup members represent Nebraska’s post-secondary institutions active in health professions education, stakeholders from related initiatives, practitioners, and governmental representatives.
Health IT Workforce Development Initiative Summary
Key Partners
Wide River Technology Extension Center, http://www.widerivertec.org
Funding
Funding provided by a grant through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
Name: Elizabeth Willborn
E-mail: ewillborn@nebraska.edu
Phone: (402) 472-0108
