The power of two
The Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and University of Massachusetts Boston team up to train nurses, reduce health disparities
By Robert Levy
Nursing leaders Greer Glazer (left) of UMass Boston and Patricia Reid Ponte of Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women's Hospital chat at the UMass Boston campus.
When Paul Fonteyn became provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts' Boston campus in 2002, he didn't need a tutorial on health inequalities in the United States, or the nursing profession's potential to reduce them.
As an administrator at San Francisco State University, home to a large percentage of racial and ethnic minority students, Fonteyn was well aware that some groups have higher cancer rates, and less access to care, than others. He also knew that in many parts of the country the ranks of hospital nurses are not as ethnically diverse as the communities they serve — and that nursing schools and hospitals could work together to solve the problem.
At a conference on partnerships between cancer centers and community organizations, Fonteyn met a particularly like-minded group: leaders of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), a collection of more than 900 cancer scientists at seven Harvard-affiliated hospitals and schools. "My very first meeting as UMB [UMass Boston] provost was not even on my own campus, but at Dana-Farber, with people who were interested in this project," he recalls.
That session planted the seed for further meetings between UMB and DF/HCC representatives. From initial gatherings of a half-dozen or so administrators and leaders, the meetings gradually began attracting faculty from both organizations, including biomedical researchers, nursing specialists, computing experts, and others.
In 2005, after two years of planning and preparation, the group successfully competed for a five-year, $4.3 million U-56 grant from the National Cancer Institute, awarded to projects that link minority-serving institutions and NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. The grant will fund a new graduate training program for nurses, as well as other initiatives (see sidebar at right). The nursing program will commence this fall, with a new doctoral degree track, more research opportunities, and community outreach experiences becoming available to graduate students — particularly members of underrepresented minorities — at the UMB College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
"We're hoping to attract more minority students to careers in nursing, provide more training in community settings, and enable students to conduct research..."
"The goal of the nursing training program is to reduce cancer disparities in Boston neighborhoods — to help people lower their risk of cancer and make sure they have the knowledge and resources to seek treatment," says the project's coleader, Patricia Reid Ponte, RN, DNSc, FAAN, senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nurse at Dana-Farber. "In line with that, we're hoping to attract more minority students to careers in nursing, provide more training in community settings, and enable students to conduct research with DF/HCC nurse-scientists as their mentors."
UMass Boston and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center are natural partners for this endeavor, Fonteyn adds: "UMB is an institution that has an urban mission, and reducing health disparities is a quintessentially urban issue. Dana-Farber has been dedicated to overcoming cancer disparities in the community as part of its work in cancer prevention. From our very first meetings, there has been an enthusiasm and interest for this project that has been rewarding to be part of."
- Next: On the fast track
- The power of two: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
- Related Story: Nursing students spread healthful messages
