The College of Nursing and Health, University of Cincinnati, will provide registered nurses access to graduate and baccalaureate nursing education in rural and medically underserved areas of southwest Ohio. Partners in the project--educational, telecommunications, and health organizations will use information technology for distance education to increase the number of future health providers in this rural area. Currently, there are no distance education initiatives for rural southeast Ohio. In order to take classes or nursing education programs, registered nurses in the rural counties of Adams, Brown, Clermont, and Hamilton have to travel significant distances to Cincinnati or simply relocate in order to find educational resources. This lack of educational and training courses for nurses and other health service providers makes it difficult to ensure an adequate number of qualified health care providers will serve the citizens of rural southwest Ohio.
This lack of access to nursing education courses will be addressed using community interactive television sites, the public fiber-optic network--OhioLINK, the Internet, and University of Cincinnati networks. In addition, the project will use NetWellness, a health information service developed by a 1994 TIIAP grantee. Using these distance learning technologies, students can access computer networks from home, hospitals, libraries, or other public access sites to take advantage of course offerings, or network access to software-based learning packages, or communicate via electronic-mail with faculty and other students.
Partners in the project include Cincinnati Bell Telephone, Clermont County Education, Adams County Hospital, and the Area Health Education Center.
