The University of Texas at El Paso’s School of Nursing has been awarded $787,202 to increase the number of trauma care nurses in hospital emergency rooms. The funding is from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and will establish the Emergency and Trauma Care Education Partnership Program (ETEP) at the School of Nursing, which will prepare registered nurses and nurse practitioners in emergency and trauma care through August 2013.

With support from Tenet Healthcare Corp., 49 pediatric and adult/geriatric acute care nurse practitioner students will train in its Sierra Providence Health Network (SPHN) facilities to obtain the skills and experience they need to deliver advanced, direct patient care in emergency and trauma settings.  Funds will be used to hire pediatric and adult/geriatric acute care nurse practitioner faculty, and to provide students with stipends to pay for tuition and books. The grant also will pay to train 24 nurse practitioners from Tenet to take the Trauma Nurse Core Certification or to become nationally certified emergency room nurses.

As part of their training, students will travel to Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center, a certified level-one trauma center in Houston, and Texas Children’s Hospital to gain additional training within the emergency and trauma departments. Future plans at UTEP include offering a post-master’s certificate in trauma care.

For more information, contact Monique Lambert at 915-747-6491.