Community Partnership Coordinator Receives Spectrum Health Healthier Communities Grant for the Third Consecutive Year

Gail Zandee RN, MSN, Community Partnership Coordinator of the Department of Nursing, has been awarded a $18,229.00 grant from Spectrum Health Healthier Communities for a third year.

This grant will renew funding for a community health worker program initiated in the three urban neighborhoods that the Nursing Department partners with - Creston/Belknap, Baxter/Madison and Burton Heights. Five residents from each neighborhood team with Calvin nursing students to promote health and access to care on the block that the resident resides on.

In the two years of the program, 772 home visits were completed by community health worker / nursing student teams. Evaluation efforts demonstrated an increase in secondary protection measures for cardiovascular disease and hypertension, improvement in hypertension knowledge, an increase in awareness of area clinics available for care, and a decrease in ER usage for primary care.