UB Nursing School to Use Technology to Train Rural Nursesinteractive Video to Connect Buffalo Campus With Classrooms In Cuba Memorial Hospital New Music Festival A Multicultural Air

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A new program initiated by the University at Buffalo School of Nursing will make it possible for nurses in rural Southern Tier counties to become nurse practitioners specializing in family, women's and children's health by taking courses at Cuba Memorial Hospital via interactive video originating from the nursing school.

The goal of the program is to increase the number of primary-care specialists practicing in underserved areas. Graduates will earn a master of science degree.

The project, called the Distance Learning Initiative of the Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Education Program, is funded by a $250,000 grant from the New York State Department of Health.

If the distance-learning initiative is effective at Cuba Memorial, nursing school officials hope to establish other classroom sites in the Southern Tier.

Recruitment will begin immediately in Allegany, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties for up to 15 nurses with bachelor's degrees to enroll in the program. The first courses will be offered in the upcoming spring semester.

Classes will take place simultaneously at UB and Cuba Memorial. Dual video screens and audio capabilities at both sites will allow full interaction between the on- and off-site classrooms.

Enrollees also will have access to HUBNET, the medical informatics network established between the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, its eight teaching hospitals and the UB Health Sciences Library. HUBNET provides the equivalent of 6.5 million pages of medical information, including computerized instruction and diagnosis databases, extensive medical-literature resources and client-management programs.

Students will receive instruction in computer-assisted learning and in gaining access and use of the HUBNET resources.

The project is a joint effort of the UB Nurse Practitioner Program, directed by Patricia Burns, Ph.D., and Cuba Memorial Hospital, headed by Marc Subject. Marsha Marecki, Ed.D., and Mary Ann Ludwig, Ph.D., of the UB nursing school, are co-directors of the project.