Inspire Health
Creating an online health learning platform.
The Bower Foundation has funded the creation of Inspire Health, an online learning platform targeted to health students and providers. There is a need to educate health care professionals during their formative training period, so that they enter their field equipped with the latest knowledge.
The first module, Breastfeeding | Human Medicine, is focused around breastfeeding. Educating future professionals, as UMMC students will help to sustain the breastfeeding-focused initiative and momentum that is happening in Mississippi right now.
The module is marketed to Mississippi physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, and lactation consultants to learn about the medical and health benefits of breastfeeding. The Continuing Education units are free of charge to Mississippi participants as a way to incentivize completion of the educational module. This work will sustain the progress made in Mississippi around improvements in birthing practices and the achievement of Baby Friendly Designation in Mississippi Hospitals.
The second module, Patchwork of Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S. and its Impact on Mississippians, is focused on the different types of health insurance coverage. This one-hour online module examines real world stories of patients who have been served at the Jackson Free Clinic and the gaps in health coverage that left these patients uninsured and seeking help from a free clinic. The course illustrates how the United States developed a complicated and convoluted “system” of coverage that is difficult to maneuver within and which results in many people “falling through the cracks.” Students will gain a better understanding of the various types of health insurance available, including private employer-based coverage, Medicare, Medicaid, the Health Insurance Marketplace, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Upon completion of the course, students will be better able to converse intelligently with administrative staff and social workers who work with health insurance and public programs on a regular basis. They will also be better equipped to understand the nuances of important policy issues being debated at the state and federal level, as well as in local and state medical associations, that affect their patients.
The third module, Nutrition and Chronic Disease, is focused on the relation of nutrition and chronic diseases. This four-to-five-hour online module contains evidence-based Inter-Professional Educational content for health profession students and healthcare professionals. Participants will learn how nutrition in the U.S. and Mississippi may be both a contributor and solution to chronic disease. This self-paced module includes video scenarios with various healthcare professionals, PowerPoint presentations with voiceovers, case studies, pretest and posttest assessments, and other resources. Participants will examine the complex relationships between nutrition and three important conditions: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Topics include pathophysiology of these conditions, diagnostic testing, nutrition recommendations for disease management, evidence-based meal plans, food related social determinants of health, and the socio-ecological model of nutrition. Upon completion of the course, participants will have improved knowledge of nutrition interventions for chronic disease, team-based approaches, and socioeconomic factors affecting diet-related chronic disease.
Learn more at inspire-health.org.