Rural Project Examples Addressing Health workforce

ROAMS (Rural OB Access & Maternal Service)

Updated/reviewed April 2025

Need: To improve maternal health in northeastern New Mexico.
Intervention: The Rural OB Access & Maternal Service program provides obstetric and maternal fetal medicine telehealth, home telehealth kits, and free access to lactation consultants and family navigators.
Results: ROAMS has worked with 2,000 unique individuals since July 2021.

Updated/reviewed April 2025

Need: To expand access to psychiatric services throughout South Carolina, with a focus on underserved and rural communities.
Intervention: South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH) created the SCDMH Emergency Department and Community Telepsychiatry programs to expand telepsychiatry access for patients in emergency departments and in various settings across the state.
Results: The program has improved access, affordability, and provided quality care for patients with mental illness living in rural and underserved areas of South Carolina.

Updated/reviewed April 2025

Need: To provide increased educational opportunities for emergency care personnel in rural and frontier South Dakota.
Intervention: A technologically advanced training was created to enhance the delivery of emergency patient care.
Results: Hundreds of emergency medical services (EMS) staff and volunteers received training that in turn helped them in the field of emergency patient care.

Updated/reviewed April 2025

Need: There is a shortage of rural physicians in the Northwestern United States.
Intervention: University of Washington medical students are receiving training through the TRUST program in rural communities across a five-state radius.
Results: Long-lasting connections have been formed among regional communities, medical students, and rural health professionals, with the goal of producing more rural physicians.

Updated/reviewed April 2025

Need: To address shortages of nurse practitioners and mental health professionals in rural Minnesota.
Intervention: The University of Minnesota (UMN) School of Nursing implemented a 40-hour rural rotation for students in the psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner program.
Results: 29 students completed rural rotations in communities across the state; several students voiced a new openness to practicing in a rural area after participating in the program.

Updated/reviewed March 2025

Need: To connect people in need in Allegany County, Maryland, to health and human services and to items like hygiene products, food, and clothing.
Intervention: The Possibility Shop partners with health organizations, insurance navigators, food banks, and other agencies.
Results: In 2024, 15,246 service encounters occurred and 940 intakes to services were performed.

Updated/reviewed January 2025

Need: To promote mental health and prevent substance use disorders in rural Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska.
Intervention: Coast to Forest strengthens local capacity through training, technical assistance, education, and community partnerships.
Results: In its five years of operation, the project has trained over 800 individuals across the Pacific Northwest in Mental Health First Aid, developed 100 county-level resource guides, organized a series of Community Conversations in five rural Oregon counties, and more.

Updated/reviewed January 2025

Need: To provide rural Nevada EMS personnel an opportunity to receive quality training and current EMS information from national EMS educators.
Intervention: The Rural Nevada EMS Conference offers continuing education units and engaging sessions for EMS personnel.
Results: In 2024, 185 individuals attended the conference in-person.

Added December 2024

Need: To provide basic pregnancy-related and preventive health services to women in the Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Intervention: A mobile clinic travels to different communities and provides basic preventive care, contraception, and pregnancy testing and ultrasounds.
Results: Since the program began, clinical staff have provided services to nearly 6,000 women.

Added December 2024

Need: To train the next generation of psychiatrists in a rural context, while providing psychiatric care to an underserved region of West Virginia.
Intervention: A new rural psychiatry residency program at Marshall University, in which residents split their time between the rural town of Point Pleasant and the larger city of Huntington.
Results: The program welcomed its first class of residents in July 2024.