UA College of Nursing, Capstone Medical Center to Bring Health Care to Parrish Residents

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – For the past 17 months, Parrish residents have been without local health care, but that’s expected to change next week when a new health center, operated by The University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing and UA’s Capstone Medical Center, will open in the rural Walker County town.

The Capstone Rural Health Center, located at 1220 Main Drive in Parrish, is set to open June 4, said Dr. Jeri Dunkin, a University of Alabama professor of nursing and holder of UA’s Martha Saxon Memorial Endowed Presidential Chair position.

“Residents in less populated areas generally do not have easy access to health services, including health-related education,” Dunkin said. Following the closing of Parrish’s only health clinic in December 1999, its residents have been forced to make the approximate 15-mile drive to Jasper for health care.

That’s one reason the Capstone Rural Health Center – made possible by a $1.2 million Health Resources Services Administration grant to the UA Capstone College of Nursing – is vital to the community, said Dunkin, the Center’s project director.

According to Alabama Department of Health and Community Affairs’ statistics, the percentage of Walker County’s citizens who die from cancer, vehicle accidents, pneumonia/influenza and suicide are all higher than the state’s and the nation’s average in each category.

“We hope to demonstrate our College and University’s commitment to Alabama’s communities, while also demonstrating our faculty’s attention to education as service,” Dunkin said. In addition to improving the health and health care access of community members, the center will enhance the education of UA’s nursing students by providing them with hands-on training for its senior and graduate-level students.

“We expect approximately 25 percent of our seniors and graduates will have gained practical experience through this partnership by the time they graduate,” Dunkin said.

The Center is a nurse-managed facility and is designed to deliver family-centered primary health care services. The grant is designed to cover start-up costs associated with the Center’s first five years of operation. The grant’s awarding agency – the Health Resources Services Administration – is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

After the first five years, the Center should be fully self-sustaining financially.

Key community partners in the Center include the Alabama Public Health Department, the Rural Alabama Health Alliance, Rural Alabama Area Health Education Center, the mayor of Parrish, community business leaders, public schools, and community churches.

“We expect to offer services at the Center that will include primary health care, health promotional materials, disease prevention, case management, support groups, health education, home visits and community-based health programming,” said Dunkin.

Kathleen Williams, a nurse practitioner and instructor in UA’s Capstone College of Nursing, will provide primary health care services at the clinic. Williams will collaborate with physicians as needed.

The Center’s advisory board will use a federal health recommendations outline called Healthy People 2010 in establishing health care guidelines for the Center. Healthy People 2010 is a national health promotion and disease prevention initiative that brings together national, state, and local government agencies; non-profit, voluntary and professional organizations; businesses; communities; and individuals to improve the health of all Americans, eliminate disparities in health and improve the quality of life.