Source: Clarion Ledger
Two Mississippi Historical Black colleges are helping nursing students from underserved communities prepare for new careers and getting public health ready to serve those communities better. Alcorn State University and Jackson State University are following a nationwide push to prepare students from underserved communities to be part of the public health workforce. The program is meant to fill two needs revealed by COVID-19 — the need to include more people from underserved communities in the public health workforce and better utilize health data in a public health emergency. The program is funded by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Public Health Informatics & Technology Workforce Development Program (PHIT Workforce Development Program) to bolster the public health workforce while finding career pathways for students from underrepresented groups.