MEDIA CONTACT: Vicki S. Katz
561-297-1139, vkatz1@fau.edu
Grant teams together medical and nursing students in the study of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia
BOCA RATON, FL (December 11, 2007) –Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science have received a $250,000, two-year grant from the Retirement Research Foundation (RRF) to enhance basic competency in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia for advanced family nurse practitioner students and medical students attending the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University.
FAU received an initial $35,000 Retirement Research Foundation grant in 2006 to pilot this project, which has two objectives. The first objective is to enhance medical and nursing students’ basic competency in the diagnosis, treatment and societal implications of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The second objective is to enhance the students’ understanding of the roles that health professionals play as team members in the delivery of care in the outpatient setting, thereby improving the students’ ability to perform effectively and collaboratively as members of interdisciplinary health care teams when they ultimately enter practice. Medical and nursing students will be teamed together to observe and participate in diagnostic evaluation and treatment services provided at the Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center.
The Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center, which is located on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, is a unit of the College of Nursing, and provides a wide range of services and programs for individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia
The principal investigators for the new grant are Ruth Tappen, EdD, RN, Eminent Scholar and professor at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, and Michael Friedland, M.D., dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science.
“This grant is truly important to medical and nursing students at Florida Atlantic University because of the particularly high prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease among Florida citizens,” said Friedland. Tappen agrees that this grant will enable both nurse practitioners and medical students to better understand memory disorders and their impact on the patient and family. “Of added importance,” Tappen adds, “is the potential for nursing and medical students to comprehend the value of working together.”
The RRF is the nation’s largest private foundation devoted solely to serving the needs of older persons in the U.S. and enhancing their quality of life. Established by the late John D. MacArthur and endowed in 1978, the RRF invests approximately $8 million each year to support efforts that enable older adults to live at home or in residential settings that facilitate independent living, improve the quality of care at nursing homes, leverage the wisdom and experience of older adults and promote community involvement, and increase understanding of the aging process and age-associated diseases.
-FAU-
Florida Atlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses strategically located along 150 miles of Florida's southeastern coastline. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university, with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts nine colleges: College of Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science, the Barry Kaye College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Engineering & Computer Science, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.
