Texas A&M, rural health clinic partnering to provide vaccine education programs
Partnership is supported by $50,000 grant awarded to the university by the Health Resources and Services Administration
BEDIAS, Texas (KBTX) - The Texas A&M College of Nursing recently received a $50,000 grant to partner with a small rural health clinic to provide vaccine education and combat misinformation across the greater Brazos Valley.
Dr. Elizabeth Ellis owns B.I.S. Community Clinic in Bedias. It’s a solo practice covering all of northern Grimes County. She says rural communities are lagging behind, especially when it comes to COVID-19.
“I think a lot of that is that lack of resources, lack of education, and understanding about the vaccines,” Ellis said.
The grant supporting its partnership with the university will help Ellis and her clinic combat exactly that. With the help of students and faculty, Ellis will be visiting school districts and community organizations in 12 counties to inform people about vaccines as part of the Rural Health Clinic Expanded Vaccine Uptake Program, or REV-UP. It’s not just COVID vaccines either, but any available vaccine.
Cindy Weston is the associate dean for clinical and outreach affairs and associate professor for the Texas A&M College of Nursing.
“It’s a win-win,” Weston said. “Our students are going to develop some educational programs that are part of their course work that can then be implemented in the school districts to increase vaccine awareness. Not only can we outreach to students, but also to their families, the faculty, and the staff involved in those districts.”
“We have access to nursing students, which helps brings us manpower. In addition, we have nurse practitioner students who come and bring us manpower,” Ellis said. “The college of nursing has brought us several large programs that we’ve been able to participate in and bring quality access to healthcare for our patients, such as cancer screening and counseling, resources, and treatment for mental health.”
Ellis says their goal is to increase public confidence in the vaccines, especially since rural populations tend to be at a higher risk from more chronic comorbidities and limited healthcare access. She says there are still a lot of patients sitting on the fence.
“We’re doing our best to try and bring that to them with this COVID education and ensure that those disparities are lowered and diminished so that we can get everybody on the same playing field and get everybody a shot in their arm,” Ellis said.
“Community healthcare workers are lay individuals who know the fabric of a community and the best way to outreach and provide health education within a community,” Weston said. “Our community health worker, through partnership, is going to help us with finding the best avenue to do these educational programs.”
Ellis says the program is set to start in the next couple of weeks.
“We think if we just provide effective education to one individual that didn’t otherwise know, that’s a success,” Weston said. “That’s a touchpoint. Our goal is to have as many touchpoints throughout the course of this next year of funding as we can so that people can make an educated decision for their own health.”
Ellis hopes the program will push as many people as possible to feel the same way as one local cattle rancher she convinced to get vaccinated recently.
“He said it best to me the other day,” Ellis said. “He said, ‘It took me being able to have a one-on-one conversation with my provider who I trusted, but now I’m a proud carrying COVID card member.’ I want everybody in our community to be a proud carrying COVID card member.”
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