UAMS, Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs Expand Affiliation

By Ben Boulden

Kohler talks about the relationship between the regional campus and the Arkansas State Veterans Home.

Aug. 13, 2014 | Gov. Mike Beebe joined officials from UAMS and the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs today at UAMS Northwest in Fayetteville to announce a plan to provide residents in the Arkansas State Veterans Home on the regional campus improved care.

 

The plan will allow interprofessional teams of UAMS students to participate in and observe care delivered to residents. UAMS resident physicians also will be involved in providing care.

 

The agreement, dubbed “Welcome Home,” expands on an education affiliation with the 108-bed skilled nursing facility located in space leased on the UAMS Northwest campus.

 

Students in UAMS Northwest nursing, medical, pharmacy and other programs will visit the residents of the veterans facility as part of their overall care given by the home’s staff. The agreement will likely expand again to include additional services to the residents when the new physical therapy program at UAMS Northwest begins in 2015.

 

None of the education agreements involve financial obligation. The residents of the facility will receive more supervision and interaction with the students and care while the UAMS students will have the opportunity to strengthen their skills.

 

“This is a win-win for our military veterans, who will get improved care they need and have earned, while these students get the kind of hands-on additional training after classroom work that goes along with being a pharmacist or a doctor or a nurse or soon a physical therapist or other health professional,” Beebe said.

 

Peter Kohler, M.D., vice chancellor for UAMS Northwest, said the agreement will enhance the interprofessional focus of the UAMS regional campus. As the students from the various programs have more opportunity to work together, their skills are strengthened plus they have the added perspective of the talents that all the professions bring to care for patients.

 

“We’re proud to have the Veterans Home on our campus and are pleased to have the opportunity to help care for service members who are residents at the home,” said Kohler. “The expansion of our affiliation will allow our students the opportunity to observe diverse medical needs that are part of long-term care.”

 

Enrollment at UAMS Northwest reached 185 students and resident physicians by early 2014 across academic programs in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and the allied health professions. That number will grow again when physical therapy starts accepting 24 students annually in the three-year doctoral program.

 

Construction started this summer on a physical therapy clinic to support the new program. The 2,600-square foot clinic is slated to open this fall, providing outpatient physical therapy services to the community.

 

By fall 2015, when the first class of 24 physical therapy students arrives, the clinic will offer a place for them to gain clinical experience with patients under supervision of trained therapists and faculty.