About Us
The University of Iowa is one of 48 organizations nationwide to receive funding from the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP). The GWEP is sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The overall purpose of the GWEP is to 1) develop a health care workforce that maximizes patient and family engagement and 2) improve health outcomes for older adults by integrating geriatrics with primary care.
Our project, the Iowa Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (Iowa-GWEP), is coordinated by the Iowa Geriatric Education Center. It embraces and implements the GWEP mission through five objectives: 1) Build partnerships to educate and train a workforce: academia, primary care sites/systems, and community-based organizations; 2) Train current and future providers to assess and address the primary care needs of older adults; 3) Transform clinical training environments to become Age-Friendly Health Systems; 4) Deliver community-based programs that provide patients, families, caregivers, and direct care workers with the knowledge and skills to improve health outcomes for older adults; and 5) Provide Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) education and training for those who provide care for older adults with dementia.
The Iowa-GWEP focuses on the 4Ms of Age-Friendly Health Systems – What Matters, Mentation, Mobility, and Medication – as well as on the practices of Dementia Friendly Communities. Our collaboration with our partners in primary care and community-based organizations advances our goal of developing a responsive interprofessional rural workforce that engages older people as partners and improves their health outcomes.
Principal Investigator Marianne Smith, PhD, RN is an associate professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing.
To learn more about the GWEP, visit the HRSA website.
This website is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $3,753,682 with 0 percentage financed with nongovernmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government.
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