Washington – U.S. Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and U.S. Representatives Marion Berry (AR-01), Vic Snyder (AR-02) and Mike Ross (AR-04) today announced that the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock will receive a $74,991 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant to develop programs that will train health professionals to work with geriatric patients suffering from severe illnesses.
Dr. Kimberly Curseen, an assistant professor of geriatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine, is the principal investigator for the project and will develop the training programs.
Funds will be used to develop an online continuing education curriculum that focuses on palliative care, which aims to reduce the severity of symptoms for patients with severe illnesses. Courses will be offered for physicians throughout Arkansas through the eight UAMS Centers on Aging across the state.
UAMS will also develop a training program that focuses on treating terminally ill and severely ill patients in African American and Latino communities in Arkansas. In addition, funds will be used to develop a training program for nursing staff in long-term care facilities to learn how to best to assist families and loved ones of residents who die at their institutions.
