AMHERST — When Ann Becker told local public health nurses about a new program that will provide them with support and mentorship, she said she got one common response: “It’s about time.”

Becker, clinical associate professor and program leader at the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said that disparities in support and funding for local public health nurses in the commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns is directly related to disparities in health outcomes. The Public Health Nurse Consultant Program, a collaboration between the Marieb College of Nursing and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Office of Local and Regional Health, seeks to improve public health across the board by giving public health nurses the consistent training and help they need to be successful.

“Nurses don’t usually work in isolation, but the public health nurse often does,” said Becker. “Local public health nurses really are a nurse for the community.”

Through the program, five experienced public health nurses will be hired as regional consultants to provide mentorship, training and support for public health nurses in their area. These nurses will also work closely with nursing faculty at UMass to develop a three-tiered curriculum consisting of online classes, in-person classes and simulations to better prepare public health nurses. The program is funded by the state with an initial $3.5 million over 28 months, and will address the great need for training among more than 300 public health nurses in local health departments.

According to Becker, most the state’s municipal public health departments have a public health nurse, while others share services. Of those 351 departments, most are entirely funded by the city or town they serve, leading many of them to go underfunded.

This kind of “home rule” can be a benefit, Becker said, because it allows cities and towns to assess their own needs when it comes to public health and prioritize their focuses accordingly. But it can also be “inefficient” and leads to “great variation” in the services these departments can provide.

“One of the things that public health nurses do that others don’t is we go to the people,” said Becker, continuing to explain that public health nurses frequently conduct public outreach, going to senior centers, libraries and other community spaces to understand the needs of residents, and to assess where vulnerabilities lie or what barriers might exist for those who are not taking advantage of health services.

A lot of responsibility falls on the shoulders of these local public health nurses, but when they have questions or find themselves in need of support, they often have nobody to call. Becker said that there is also a lack of robust, consistent training available to ensure that these nurses are confident when approaching public health challenges.

“We want to attract more nurses to the field … but they want to know that they’re going to have support,” said Becker. “You need to have someone to call when you have questions.”

Becker said that she is “just so energized” by the program and by the responses she has already heard from local public health nurses. The program aims to promote health equity across the state’s municipalities by ensuring that these public health nurses at all experience levels are prepared and supported as they address the common and unique challenges within their communities.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.