COLUMBIA, Mo. – A $1.33 million gift to the University of Missouri will create opportunities for future professionals in the health care industry and allow North Central Missouri College to train some of those needed health care professionals.
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RehabCare Group Inc. of Clayton, recently made the donation to the MU School of Health Professions (SHP) as part of the For All We Call Mizzou campaign.
“We are excited and very appreciative of this gift from RehabCare, which is an investment in the future of health care for Missouri,” MU Chancellor Brady Deaton said. “This generous gift to the School of Health Professions will provide opportunities for our students and faculty to advance training in the health care industry across the entire state.”
The gift from RehabCare, one of the nation’s leading rehabilitation providers, will enable SHP to partner with five Missouri community colleges to create solutions for the shortage of physical and occupational therapists in Missouri. Currently, SHP is developing a program for training health care professionals called “The Modern Workforce Initiative,” which will be made available to the community colleges this fall. The colleges will open the program to 50 physical therapy assistant students and 50 certified occupational therapy assistant students.
The five community colleges partnering with SHP are North Central Missouri College in Trenton, State Fair Community College in Sedalia, East Central Community College in Washington, Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, and Moberly Area Community College in Moberly.
NCMC President Dr. Neil Nuttall said participation in the program will allow NCMC to offer a program that previously could only be offered if there were a large number of students enrolled. Under this arrangement, the area’s needs will be served and the college will not have to support a program on its own.
“This program will provide small, rural community colleges an opportunity to participate in a highly technical allied health program at a greatly reduced cost, “ Dr. Nuttall said. Instead of trying to produce 20 physical or occupational therapy assistants, we can produce five to seven of each which are critically important to the health care providers of the region without having to over produce. Our students will benefit from the partnership by having no roadblocks to being admitted into the next program to receive a bachelor or master’s degree. They won’t lose any hours, they will transfer on,” he added.
Dr. Nuttall indicated students enrolling in the program will begin taking core classes this fall with the technical classes beginning in the fall of 2009.
“As the baby boomer generation ages, there will be an increased demand for healthcare services,” said John Short, RehabCare CEO. “That means the current shortage of therapists and therapist assistants will become more severe. To ensure that all patients who require therapy have unfettered access to it, it is imperative we do something about the future availability of clinicians.”
“The program will be a major source of quality care for people in some under-served areas of the state,” said Rich Oliver, dean of SHP. “These programs are expensive to provide and each college and each university cannot necessarily offer them on their own. This gift allows all involved to maximize available resources to address a critical issue in our state.”
According to Oliver, the collaboration represents a “genuine effort” to forge a partnership between the University and community colleges to expand educational opportunities in Missouri.
“This creates another pathway for Missourians to enter into the high-demand health care professions,” Oliver said. “If we’re ever going to address the health care workforce shortages we must develop as many vehicles to do that as possible. This is another alternative and provides not only a community college option but a pathway to Mizzou as well.”