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COM Outlook . Summer 2012
he college’s Florida Coastal Geriatric
Resources, Education, and Train-
ing Center (GREAT GEC) was awarded
a supplemental grant from the Health
Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA). The two-year, $134,906 grant
will focus on Alzheimer’s education for
professionals involved in elder services
and care and launch in July 2012.
GREAT GEC Receives Supplemental HRSA Alzheimer’s Grant
T
The Professional Education for
Alzheimer’s Resources and Leadership
(Project PEARL) will revise and utilize the
evidence-based curriculum provided by
the National Alzheimer’s Association for
Professionals Working in a Home Care
Setting in year one. In year two, the
curriculum for Practice in Assisted Living
Centers and Nursing Homes, includ-
ing end-of-life care, will be revised and
tailored for delivery to meet the targeted
goals and objectives.
Given NSU-COM’s success in placing
graduates in rural and underserved rural
areas throughout Florida, training will
focus on Alzheimer’s prevention, diagnosis,
and care in medically underserved areas to
address special needs elderly, particularly
Hispanics. The curriculum revisions and en-
hancements will focus on two overarching
goals that will serve as the umbrella for the
objectives and activities to be delivered:
providing
a cultural and linguistic
approach to existing evidence-based
curriculum available from the national Al-
zheimer’s Association for health care pro-
fessionals working with Hispanic elders
incorporating
interprofessional
Research
H i gh l i gh t s
core competencies into the professional
training provided
The curricular revisions and enhance-
ments will be translated into Spanish as
both English and Spanish training will be
provided. Curricular materials will be dis-
seminated online on the GREAT GEC Web
site and will be part of the HRSA central-
ized Web site. As one of 29 osteopathic
medical colleges in the United States,
and with the support of the American
Association of Colleges of Osteopathic
Medicine, all of these approved CME
training programs will be disseminated
and available online to osteopathic phy-
sicians. The GEC project has also identi-
fied a need for training among medical
residents. With current residency affili-
ations through the college numbering
918, fellows and residents can also be
trained through this initiative.
Graduate Students from Comenius
University Participate in NSU Research
nna Pivovarčiová, M.D., and Natália
Kamodyová, who are Ph.D. students
at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slo-
vakia, received European Union scholar-
ships to participate in six-month research
projects at NSU. Dr. Pivovarčiová, who is
conducting research related to behavior
in children with autism and testosterone
levels, is working with faculty members
from NSU-COM, the Mailman Segal
Center for Human Development, and the
College of Pharmacy, while Kamodyová is
collaborating with NSU-COM and College
of Dental Medicine faculty members.
The outstanding experiences of these
Slovakian students were made possible
through collaborative initiatives estab-
lished by Cecilia Rokusek, Ed.D., R.D.,
executive director of education, planning,
A
and research and Slovak Honorary Consul
for the state of Florida. Their research
will be ongoing as other faculty members
from throughout the NSU campus be-
come involved with the research projects
of Kamodyová and Dr. Pivovarčiová.
Pictured (from left) are Dr. Anna
Pivovarčiová, Dr. Cecilia Rokusek,
and Natália Kamodyová
.
IDEP Partners
with MetaMedia
etaMedia Training International,
Inc. has partnered with NSU-COM’s
Institute for Disaster and Emergency
Preparedness (IDEP) to develop a library
of HazMat scenarios that will be inte-
grated into existing and ongoing hazard-
ous materials training that is overseen by
NSU-COM through its five-year National
Institutes of Health grant-funded project
entitled South East Area Maritime Indus-
try Safety Training (SEAMIST).
The $100,000 National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
grant, of which IDEP is receiving $25,000,
is being used to develop interactive,
scenario-based training programs to help
prevent, mitigate, and respond to tragic
and avoidable incidents related to hazard-
ous materials in the maritime industry
MetaMedia will use Apple’s iPad to
deliver the maritime safety training pro-
grams. The case studies will be based on
real-life accidents using highly realistic
scenarios that will cover the most critical
information and knowledge required for
dock workers to perform an incident risk-
free response.
M