ALABAMA, USA — The coronavirus pandemic has tested the health care community, especially nurses working on the frontlines. After two strenuous years, nurses still carry on, even as new variants and surges bring additional challenges.
As nurses continue supporting the health care system and their patients, Patricia A. Patrician, Ph.D., professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing, is launching a new UAB program dedicated to supporting nurses.
The Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded Patrician $2.3 million to implement and study programs, in collaboration with UAB Medicine. The programs look to reduce burnout and promote mental health and well-being within the nursing profession.
The three-year grant is a part of HRSA’s Health Workforce Resiliency Award, a program aiming to establish a culture of wellness and resiliency among the health care workforce during the ongoing pandemic.
Patrician’s grant will create the Workforce Engagement for Compassionate Advocacy, Resiliency and Empowerment, or WE CARE, program at UAB Hospital.
The program will hire five nursing development specialists who will receive additional training in resilience and psychological first aid, a program developed by Johns Hopkins University, to assist with selected hospital units.
A mental health nurse practitioner will provide counseling support services exclusively to nurses. Additional funds will be allocated to improvements and expansion efforts of oasis areas, or respite rooms, within the hospital.
Patrician, who has dedicated much of her research to studying and developing quality work environments for nurses, hopes the WE CARE program will actively support UAB nurses and establish groundwork for resources that can be implemented for nurses around the state to access.
While the pandemic exacerbated nursing shortages and burnout in Alabama, they are not new concerns in the nursing field. Patrician and her colleagues surveyed nurses across the state in 2019 and determined that burnout and poor staffing were issues prior to COVID-19.
Nursing faculty and staff at the UAB School of Nursing have pivoted resources throughout the pandemic to assist its clinical partners. Faculty and students dedicated thousands of hours working shifts to alleviate workforce shortages at UAB Hospital, as well as planned and operated community vaccine clinics in partnership with UAB Medicine.
The school also collaborated with UAB Hospital to provide a pipeline of students to its student nurse aide position, which allows students to gain experience as patient care technicians ahead of graduation, while earning money during school. The ultimate goal is for the students to become familiar with the UAB Health System and return as nurses once they graduate.
Editor's note: This story originally published at uab.edu.