The University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Nursing has received a $364,502 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that will allow a specialized education outreach to health care professionals in the Mid-South Delta region to improve care for patients with sickle cell disease.
The college will work in collaboration with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Baptist Memorial Health Care to reach 240 health care professionals over the next two years, including health care providers of both primary and emergency care. The principal investigator for the grant is Sara Day, PhD, RN, FAAN, assistant dean for Community and Global Partnerships at the College of Nursing. Co-investigators are Yvonne M. Carroll, RN, JD, director of patient services in the Department of Hematology at St. Jude; Assistant Professor Keesha Roach, PhD, RN, at the College of Nursing; and Brooke Clemons, MSN, RN, a PhD student in nursing science at UTHSC.
Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that affects about 100,000 people in the U.S., including 2,000 in the Mid-South. Among newborn births screened, Mississippi has the second highest incidence of sickle cell disease among infants in the U.S. People of African descent make up 90% of the population with sickle cell disease in the U.S. It also affects people of Hispanic, South Asian, Southern European, and Middle Eastern ancestry.
Read more at our UTHSC news site.