By Laura Gasque
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Clinical and Community Programs Christian Ketel, DNP, RN, FNAP, has received a four-year, $4 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to help improve maternal health in Alabama.
“This grant and our partnerships across the state have the potential to be transformative for maternal health in Alabama, especially in the southwest region of our state and in rural communities,” Ketel said.
The UAB School of Nursing will collaborate with the UAB School of Public Health, UAB Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Alabama Medicaid, and the University of South Alabama Health to launch the Rural Maternal Network. Working with these partners, the RMN aims to build a comprehensive, sustainable maternal care delivery model that enhances outcomes for pregnant mothers in Alabama's rural communities. This network of partners will work together to establish targeted, evidence-based strategies that address barriers to care while strengthening and preserving existing maternal health services.
The RMN also will support existing maternal services, including expanding the nurse-midwifery workforce in Alabama, mobile maternal health clinics, maternal home visitation, telehealth-enabled prenatal and postpartum care, and data integration. These strategies will help improve care coordination across the continuum from preconception to postpartum and ensure that providers see pregnant women early, monitor them frequently, and care for them in settings equipped to manage their level of risk. The network also will work to improve care coordination by piloting a shared data infrastructure.
“One of our early program goals is to strengthen system-level coordination and data sharing and to support our existing maternal health workforce,” Ketel said. “Together, with our partners in the state and with the resources of the School’s Women and Children Health Initiative, we hope to expand and preserve access to comprehensive maternity and obstetrics services in these areas.”
The UAB School of Nursing's Women and Children Health Initiative encompasses all the School’s maternal and child health-focused work across its teaching, research, and practice missions. WACHI’s vision is to ensure a future where women and children in Alabama are not only healthy but also thriving and achieving their full potential. The RMN, which falls under the WACHI umbrella, will tap into WACHI's expertise and resources, including the Nurse Family Partnership of Greater Alabama and the Moms and Kids Mobile Health Clinic.
UABSON Professor and Executive Director of WACHI, Allison Shorten, PhD, FACM, FANP, FAAN, is excited about the potential for the RMN to improve access to evidence-based maternity care for families in Alabama.
“The network is poised to provide greater opportunities for rural mothers and babies to experience the benefits of coordinated and collaborative interprofessional models of maternity care which are known to improve pregnancy outcomes,” Shorten said.