N.C. A&T, Cone Health Bolster Education, Research, Workforce Development Collaborations

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (March 2, 2023) – North Carolina Agricultural and Complex State University and Cone Health now signed a Memorandum of Comprehension (MOU) that strengthens their partnerships in clinical schooling, investigation and strategic workforce development.

To achieve these plans, the two establishments have formulated a joint steering committee to recognize, produce, put into practice and examine precedence initiatives.

“Our partnership has enriched this neighborhood in so a lot of means, from the wellbeing pros we graduate at A&T who then go into Cone Wellbeing options to provide the general public, to the quite a few ways we collaborate toward better health fairness in the course of the Piedmont Triad,” said Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. “That function is important as we jointly seek out to tackle and make improvements to procedures and outcomes that have disadvantaged particular communities and populations for generations. For the reason that of all that we have achieved beforehand, the new MOU portends nicely for our pupils and for the hundreds of thousands of people and households served by each our establishments every yr.”

Cone Health has been a very long-standing spouse for medical instruction of students in the B.S.N. program at N.C. A&T. This MOU sets forth a broad framework for foreseeable future cooperation at a time when the university is growing its medical diploma choices and advancing multidisciplinary workforce study ways to ease overall health disparities.

A new addition to the medical degree systems at A&T is an M.S. in physician assistant (PA) scientific tests authorized by the UNC Board of Governors in October 2022. Housed in the John R. and Kathy R. Hairston College of Health and Human Sciences, the PA system will look for accreditation via the Accreditation Assessment Commission on Schooling for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), and will start off to recruit students as soon as the procedure is finish.

A&T has also received preliminary authorization to develop a doctoral nurse practitioner (DNP) program that focuses on nursing leadership and psychiatry/psychological overall health. Once recognized, these two systems will placement the college to lead considerably to the training of wellbeing treatment staff with technological and cultural competency abilities to much more properly serve minority communities.

“North Carolina A&T’s aspirations incorporate collaborative analysis, entrepreneurial innovation and new requirements of general public provider and local community engagement,” claimed Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Tonya Smith-Jackson, Ph.D. “By boosting our connection with Cone Health, we will enhance options for learners pursuing overall health care careers and for learners in other disciplines, this kind of as small business, technology, engineering and training.

“Our university is preparing potential generations of Aggies to serve as catalysts for improved health and fitness results among underserved populations and, in flip, constructive financial growth in our group.”

Considerably of the infrastructure for clinical schooling is presently in place. A&T and Cone Wellness, together with UNC-Greensboro and Guilford Complex Group University, are partnered via Union Square in downtown Greensboro. Opened in 2016, Union Sq. is a condition-of-the-artwork facility built to educate nurses from the affiliate to doctoral degree levels. It is also utilized for the continuing education of Cone Health medical professionals.

In 2020, A&T and Cone Wellbeing ended up amid 10 businesses getting $25,000 for perform to examination a wellness equity toolkit, addressing nursing’s purpose in building overall health fairness and properly-remaining and advertising a tradition of health and fitness. The grant was awarded as part of the Upcoming of Nursing: Marketing campaign for Motion, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Basis.

A&T and Cone Well being also collaborate to make improvements to infant wellbeing outcomes. In Spring 2022, a lactation clinic inside of Cone Health’s MedCenter for Gals – a joint enterprise involving A&T and Cone Health – opened to serve nursing moms and families searching for guidance and assist. It is staffed principally by learners and graduates from the lactation certification system, which is component of the university’s School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. The lactation certificate system is just one of only two lactation systems housed at a traditionally Black school or university (HBCU), just one of only nine this sort of systems in the earth and a single of the couple of that calls for an undergraduate diploma first. The supreme intention is to coach more lactation consultants who search like the households they serve and normalize breastfeeding between ladies of color.

Cone Wellbeing has been a precious medical investigate lover for A&T college, leveraging the complementary resources and knowledge at every single establishment. Beginning in 2013, the Cone Health and fitness Neighborhood Clinic led by Olu Jegede, M.D., vice president clinical treatment-health and fitness fairness, carried out a research plan beneath the Minority Men’s Overall health Initiative (MMHI) led by Hairston College Dean Elimelda Moige Ongeri, Ph.D., and Robert Newman, Ph.D., distinguished professor of biology in the School of Science and Technological innovation, that focuses on diabetic kidney illness. The MMHI produced coalitions with community faith-centered communities to advance diabetes wellness literacy among African American gentlemen.

Also, Stephanie Teixeira-Poit, Ph.D., an affiliate professor in the Hairston College’s Division of Sociology and Social Function, is performing some of her study on neonatal intensive care units at Cone Well being. She is applying a $568,960 National Institutes of Well being grant she received previous calendar year to carry out the analyze with a group that incorporates co-investigators Bonnie Fields, Ph.D., clinical affiliate professor in A&T’s College of Nursing, and Marjorie Jenkins, Ph.D., director of nursing analysis at Cone Wellness.

Potential investigate collaborations will leverage methods at A&T’s recently recognized Heart of Excellence in Integrative Well being Disparities and Fairness Exploration and Cone Health‘s Middle of Overall health Equity with joint advancement of investigate grant proposals.

A&T has relished a extended-standing partnership with Cone Health’s Piedmont Space Well being Education Heart, formerly recognised as the Greensboro Region Wellness Schooling Middle, which has supported no much less than 5 important initiatives built to boost college student preparedness and accomplishment as far again as 2008. These packages give exposure to well being careers and exploration for middle school, superior faculty, college and specialist school pupils.

The impact of A&T and Cone Overall health collaborations on communities in Greensboro was perhaps most apparent in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Functioning with the Guilford Section of Wellbeing and Human Solutions, they jointly opened a COVID-19 vaccination and tests clinic on the A&T campus. This initiative promoted uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations especially in the Black local community, mitigated the results of the world pandemic and saved life and livelihoods.

“For many years, Cone Well being and North Carolina A&T partnered on assembly the health and fitness treatment requirements of individuals throughout the Triad,” stated Cone Wellness CEO Mary Jo Cagle, M.D. “Today’s actions broaden our do the job beyond the requirements of right now to performing toward more healthy tomorrows, richer opportunities for students and extended and superior life in each community we provide.”

North Carolina Agricultural and Specialized Point out University Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. shakes arms with Cone Overall health CEO Mary Jo Cagle, M.D., Thursday, March 2, at the college.