Tribal College Initiative

Native American elders currently have the shortest life spans, earlier onset of chronic disease, and higher functional disability, as compared to all other groups, and yet have almost no eldercare services on reservations. Responding to the need for additional training of Native American nurse educators, our partnership with tribes to advance geriatric teaching includes  four tribal colleges.

• Faculty champions from Tribal College nursing programs exchange ideas with other members of the Upper Midwest Geriatric Nursing Education Alliance . They learn a geriatric content mapping strategy that identifies educational gaps and develop a plan for addressing them.  Staff travel to tribal colleges and presentations by tribal nurses to Alliance members will help to assure that the geriatric nursing training is infused with native wisdom and addresses concerns specific to AI elders.
  
• Native American nurse faculty from tribal college nursing programs in the Alliance who enroll in the free week long summer Faculty Learning About Geriatrics (FLAG) program to strengthen geriatric expertise have access to extended curricular resources and ongoing mentoring.  They are also eligible for transportation stipends.
• Post masters Native American students are encouraged to apply for DNP/PhD financial support and mentoring through our Scholars program.  Postmasters DNP students from any state pay in-state tuition.

Links to sites with information on health care for American Indian elders:

1. National Indian Council on Aging: http://www.nicoa.org/
2. Indian Health Service/ Elder Care Initiative: http://www.ihs.gov/MedicalPrograms/ElderCare/
3. National Resource Center on Native American Aging: http://ruralhealth.und.edu/projects/nrcnaa/
4. Administration on Aging American Indian and Alaska Native Programs: http://www.aoa.gov/prof/aoaprog/natives/native.aspx
5. Native Elder Research Center: http://www.uchsc.edu/sm/nerc
6. Link to presentation given at the Faculty Learning About Geriatrics (FLAG) 2008 Summer Institute by Margaret Moss, DSN, RN, JD, former American Indian and Tribal College Initiatives Coordinator for the MNHCGNE: https://umconnect.umn.edu/p44844360/