Foundation Awards Grants to Boost Diversity in the Health Care Workforce
Responding to studies that found that "cultural and linguistic factors" present a "barrier to care" for low-income families, the HealthCare Foundation for Orange County has awarded "Partners for Health" grants totaling about $725,000 to boost ethnic diversity in the health care workforce. Anaheim Memorial Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital, which have teamed up with the Regional Health Occupations Resources Center and colleges around the county, received a $595,623 award for an "innovat[ive]" effort to place minority health employees in local training programs, "upgrade" their skills and prepare them for new positions, including emergency nurses. In addition, Kaiser Permanente and partner Cal State Long Beach will use grant funding to "continue and expand" their "successful" Latino health care professionals project, which helps place Latino health care workers in local hospitals and clinics. The University of California-Irvine Medical Center also received a small grant to bolster minority recruitment efforts and provide "cultural competency" training for medical school family nurse practitioner staff. Meanwhile, in a separate initiative under the foundation's "Partners for Health" program, the group will provide $169,000 for a joint effort by Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and Latino Health Access to curb the increase in obesity among low-income Latino children (HealthCare Foundation for Orange County release, 1/24).
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