📍Mobile, Alabama
Bridging Preventative Care and Real-World Experience
Challenge:
Rural and under-resourced areas in Southwest Alabama and Southeast Mississippi face high morbidity and mortality due to unmet health needs, compounded by a critical shortage of nurses prepared to lead culturally responsive, interprofessional care teams.
Solution:
Through HRSA/NEPQR support, the Nursing REEACH program designed and sustained a comprehensive approach to recruit, educate, and train nurses to deliver preventive and primary care in community-based, real-world settings.
- Deployed Mobile Health Units (MHUs) to bring care directly into communities where people live, work, study, and worship
- Embedded community health priorities into every level of nursing education
- Expanded experiential learning through non-traditional, nurse-led clinical settings
- Built strong partnerships with FQHCs, schools, tribal communities, and community-based organizations
- Integrated interprofessional collaboration and continuous quality improvement into training
Impact:
✅ 258 Mobile Health Unit deployments
✅ Over 3,600 patient encounters in under-resourced communities
✅ 300+ nursing students trained in culturally aligned care
✅ 49 faculty development activities
✅ 20+ continuing education opportunities for nursing faculty and partners
✅ 20+ telehealth certifications earned by students and faculty