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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Project Examples: Health workforce

Other Project Examples

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.

Updated/reviewed August 2024

  • Need: To increase recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural western North Carolina.
  • Intervention: The Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) Rural Fellowship offers mentorship, education, research support, and community-building opportunities for local providers in their first year of practice.
  • Results: Of the 30 fellows who have completed the program since 2017, 94% are still practicing in rural areas; 83% are still practicing in rural western North Carolina.

Added July 2024

  • Need: To increase the number of Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians (Advanced EMTs) in rural Idaho and neighboring states.
  • Intervention: An Advanced EMT class offered to students at five rural high schools, the first of its kind in the country.
  • Results: Two students graduated from the class in its first year, with at least two more expected to enroll in the 2024-25 school year.

Added July 2024

  • Need: To increase the future healthcare workforce in rural Minnesota.
  • Intervention: Montevideo Medical Academy helps students explore healthcare career options and gain college credit.
  • Results: So far, 25 students in the program have attained 170 college credits, 55 certifications, and 304 hours of clinical experience.

Updated/reviewed July 2024

  • Need: To increase access to healthcare and social services in rural South Carolina via library systems.
  • Intervention: Pilot sites are hiring social workers and community health workers to provide consultations, case management, and referrals.
  • Results: One library screens an average of 215 residents a month, and another library's programming reached over 800 female patrons.

Added July 2024

  • Need: To increase access to preventive dental care among children living in rural Arizona.
  • Intervention: A nonprofit organization formed to offer free, school-based preventive dental services to children in two rural Arizona counties.
  • Results: Throughout the 2023-24 school year, Tooth B.U.D.D.S. provided preventive services to 1,710 students in rural Graham and Greenlee Counties. Program staff use a telehealth platform to connect children to local dentists for follow-up care.
funded by the Health Resources Services Administration

Updated/reviewed June 2024

  • Need: Address oral health disparities in Washington's rural communities.
  • Intervention: The University of Washington School of Dentistry (UWSOD) developed the Regional Initiatives in Dental Education (RIDE) program to increase the number of dentists prepared for the various languages and custom-specific attitudes concerning oral health in addition to the clinical competence required to practice in rural areas.
  • Results: Since its start in 2009 and as of 2024, nearly 100 dentists have completed the program with over 81% practicing in rural communities.

Updated/reviewed April 2024

  • Need: Strategies to recruit and retain providers to practice in rural settings.
  • Intervention: A traveling one-day workshop was designed to share ideas and firsthand accounts on successful strategies on how to create "Safe Sites" for new recruits.
  • Results: So far, workshops have trained over 250 hospital administrators, board members, and rural hospital recruiters.

Updated/reviewed February 2024

  • Need: To reduce farm injuries and improve EMS and fire/rescue's response to these injuries in rural Louisiana and Mississippi.
  • Intervention: AGRIMEDIC is a two-day training for first responders.
  • Results: 810 first responders have received training.

For examples from other sources, see: