KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee has been awarded a $5.5 million grant from the Tennessee Department of Health to increase immunization rates for children and older adults in the state.
The project will place 14 registered nurses across the state to provide county-level support to improve rates of vaccination against COVID-19 and other vaccine-preventable diseases, according to a release from UT.
The project will also provide professionals with UT Extension with more knowledgeable information to communicate with the public about vaccine education and outreach.
The college will also use students, faculty, and staff from other nursing schools within the UT system in order to support county-specific interventions that will help educate and increase access to vaccines for all Tennesseans.
“As we have navigated through a global pandemic for the last two years, our immunization rates in Tennessee have dropped,” Dean Victoria Niederhauser said. “We believe that deploying RNs across the state to assess barriers and create interventions to improve these rates will lead to better health outcomes for children and older adults in Tennessee.”
The project began in January and runs through 2024.