A new federal award to the University of Iowa will continue a Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) to educate and train health care and supportive care workforces to care for older adults in collaboration with community partners across Iowa and several other states.

The program aims to respond to a host of challenges related to Iowa’s rapidly aging and largely rural population, such as increases in age-related illnesses, diseases, and disabilities, as well as increased demand for health care services and growing health professional shortages.

The new funding of nearly $5 million over 5 years has been awarded to the Iowa GWEP, led by project director Ryan Carnahan, professor of epidemiology in the UI College of Public Health, and a team of dedicated staff: Linda Seydel, Brady Curran, Kristin Johnson, and Ryleigh Lind. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Other UI faculty include Kim Bergen-Jackson, Betty Mallen, and Shalome Tonelli in the UI College of Nursing; Michael Maharry and other Rural Iowa Scholars Program leaders in the UI Carver College of Medicine; and Nadia Sabbagh Steinberg in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ School of Social Work. The Iowa GWEP also collaborates with the Csomay Center for Gerontologic Excellence in the College of Nursing, led by Leah Buck.

The Iowa GWEP will be implemented through the Iowa Geriatric Education Center, a university program with over 20 years of continuous HRSA funding. The interdisciplinary training initiative also involves a diverse range of community partners from across Iowa and the Midwest, including:

• Broadlawns Medical Center, Des Moines
• Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health
• Iowa Department of Health and Human Services
• Indigenous Peoples Health System Consortium  
• National Association of Chronic Disease Directors Center for Advancing Healthy Communities/Iowa Community HUB
• Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging
• The Office of Statewide Clinical Education Programs & Continuing Medical Education
• Oklahoma City VA Health Care System
• UnityPoint Health (Quad Cities Skilled Nursing Facility Coalition)
• Telligen, Des Moines
• University of Northern Iowa
• Western Home Communities

The program will address key challenges facing the rural health care workforce, notes Carnahan, citing “a shortage of health professionals trained in geriatrics, an inadequate infrastructure for training to meet the growing need, and insufficient patient access to geriatric care expertise.”  

The Iowa GWEP aims to provide accessible training to all current and future health care providers throughout Iowa, from direct care workers to primary care physicians, to ensure they are better prepared to provide care to the growing number of older adults. Through collaborations with community partners, expanded clinical training, and continuing education activities, the program targets rural and underserved areas. The initiative also emphasizes patient and family engagement strategies to ease workforce needs while advancing caregiver health and well-being.

“The focus throughout this program will be delivering age-friendly and dementia-friendly programs that provide health care and supportive care workers with the knowledge and skills to improve care for older adults,” says Carnahan.