To strengthen and retain the public health nursing workforce in rural Appalachia, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in partnership with Remote Area Medical, has designed eTHRIVE:  Empowering and Transforming public Health nursing education and practice for Rural underserved areas to Improve care using Virtual-based simulation and Experiential strategies.

Over the course of the next 2-years, the eTHRIVE project team will develop and implement asynchronous virtual simulation modules incorporating the use of an innovative V-Visit Sim^© App to improve the knowledge, skills, self-efficacy, and empathy of 150 RN to BSN students and as many as 5,000 nurses currently providing care in rural Appalachia. Also, the eTHRIVE team will work with Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit organization that operates episodic clinics using a corps of volunteer populations, to incorporate, for the first time, telehealth technology into their healthcare services. A strong emphasis of the project is to reduce the burden of obesity, heart disease, and stroke-related conditions. 

Goal 1: Use innovative simulation-based modalities and technology to increase the capacity of RN to BSN students and the rural Appalachian RN workforce to work collaboratively across disciplines to improve population health outcomes in rural underserved areas

Goal 2) Increase the capacity of the rural Appalachia Nursing workforce to provide coordinated public health nursing care through telehealth and technology for rural underserved populations

An anticipated impactful outcome is increased public health nursing competencies for motivational interviewing, assessment, health education, telehealth, and inter-professional coordination of care.

The project meets funding preference since the project encompasses work in a rural and geographic Health Professional Shortage Area, and substantially benefits rural and underserved populations.

Organization Name: University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Nursing

Address:  1200 Volunteer Boulevard, Knoxville, TN 37996

Project Director Name:  Dr. Lisa Davenport

Email Address:  ldavenp1@utk.edu

“The e-THRIVE project was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under 1 U4EHP42431‐01‐00 and Nurse Education Practice Quality Retention Simulation Education Training grant. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.”