Contacts:
Mary Jo Kreitzer, R.N., Ph.D., (612) 624-9459Sarah Youngerman, Academic Health Center, (612) 624-4604
U OF M RECEIVES GRANT TO SUPPORT COMPLEMENTARY CARE CURRICULUM
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL--The National Institutes of Health have awarded the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing a $1.6 million grant to build and support a curriculum in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
"We are thrilled to be chosen by the NIH for the support of our complementary and alternative medicine programs and curriculum," said Frank Cerra, senior vice president for health sciences. "This is further evidence that the University of Minnesota will continue to be seen as the site of choice for training of health professionals in these areas. We are educating the next generation of health care professionals--professionals who have not only heard of CAM, but who have experienced and provided those services. The NIH grant supports our work to develop a model and standard that we hope will be emulated throughout the country."
The NIH grant will allow the center to integrate complementary and alternative medicine learning into the required curriculum of the Medical School, School of Nursing and all other schools in the Academic Health Center. Further, the grant will support the university's newly created graduate minor in complementary therapies and healing practices. The university was the first institute in the country to offer a graduate minor in this area.
"The Center for Spirituality and Healing intends to use this grant to strengthen and expand our collaborative relationships with complementary providers in the community," said Mary Jo Kreitzer,director of the center and principal investigator of the grant. "This is an important part of the comprehensive, team model of health care that the university is committed to bringing to Minnesota.We know that consumers are demanding access to complementary approaches to healing. More than half of all consumers use complementary and alternative medicine and often do not share that information with their health care provider. On the flip side, we see today's generation of health care professionals eager to balance their regular course work with this kind of learning. Students are excited to learn and integrate CAM into their body of health care knowledge."
The center competed with 30 other universities for the grant. In choosing the university, NIH said a "solid team of CAM and conventional educators/practitioners is already in place within an infrastructure that supports meaningful interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary activity." NIH also recognized the approach of integrating the program into all Academic Health Center schools as "pragmatic and thoughtful."
More than 130 students are enrolled in the CAM graduate minor this fall.
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