UAB receives grant for iHEAL training program to prepare the next generation of nurse scientists.The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing has received a five-year, $1.8 million T32 training grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research for the training program Improving HEalth Across the Lifespan, or iHEAL.
The goal of the program is to prepare the next generation of the nurse scientist workforce to address a wide variety of health challenges through the lenses of health disparities, social determinants of health, population and community health, prevention, health promotion, and systems-based models of care.
“This is one of the few nurse scientist training programs in the South addressing comprehensive healthy living from a life-course lens,” said Marie Bakitas, DNSc, university professor in the School of Nursing and co-investigator of this project. “This grant is significant for our school and the people of our state, region and nation.”
This program will recruit predoctoral and postdoctoral nurse scientists yearly. It will offer tuition and stipend support, along with training that includes mentoring, hands-on learning, coursework in multidisciplinary health research, research ethics, professional development and leadership.
“These new nurse scientists will develop, in concert with their mentors, impactful research that will be far-reaching across the region and the nation,” said Frank Puga, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Nursing, co-director of the postdoctoral fellowship program and co-investigator on this project. “They will especially focus on populations exposed to the challenges of rural location, poverty or lack of resources that limit opportunities for healthy living.”
The program builds on UAB’s existing training programs for growth, learning and interprofessional collaboration, especially with the Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center, Social Determinants of Health Institutional Core and other centers. Trainees will develop grant proposals, design and conduct their own research studies, and share their findings through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at scientific conferences.
“This grant is a tremendous resource for our Ph.D. students,” said Pariya Wheeler, Ph.D., professor in the School of Nursing, interim director of the Ph.D., program and co-investigator on this project. “We know the future of health and health care requires personalized approaches to prevention and treatment, and having more nurse scientists in the workforce is key to developing interventions to maximize health and well-being for everyone.”