Center is no hand-me-down
Coming up short on funds and staffing
To launch a patient and caregiver learning center at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA, administration provided two rooms and the salary for a part-time staff member. Without money for resources, Annette Mercurio, MPH, CHES, director of health education services at the national cancer center, looked for grant money.
About $35,000 to support start-up of the learning center was provided by a foundation grant and a memorial fund at the medical facility. She used part of the grant money to purchase computers, a TV and VCR unit, and books. Mercurio will use the remaining funds to continue to develop and update the resource material.
Volunteers are used to keep the learning center open when paid staff are not present. These volunteers have worked with City of Hope for a while and are familiar with the medical center’s services. Additionally, they received instruction on the community resource Web site that was created for the center. They also were told the scope of their role so they would know what kinds of questions needed to be answered by a nurse. Much of the training took place at the supportive care resource desk located in the ambulatory care building.
Currently, the learning center is open on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is staffed by a volunteer two days a week and a resource specialist the rest of the time.
"In the future, I think we will get some additional funding from the medical center, but I think we will have to continue to get outside support as well. It will be a combination of funding," says Mercurio.
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