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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Health workforce education and training

Voices From the Field: Informing Maternal Child Health Navigator Training Through Rural Practice Insights
Presents a study on Maternal-Child Health (MCH) Navigators on their perception of their preparedness for providing trauma-informed care, substance use support, and addressing drivers of health in rural Texas communities. Explores MCH Navigators' assessment of the efficacy of their training and real-world experience to prepare them for the maternal health challenges in rural communities.
Author(s): Sharon L. Dormire, Cassidy S. Doucet, Nydia Garcia, Robin Page
Citation: Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 17
Date: 07/2026
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Nursing in the Rural West: Challenges and Opportunities for Supporting Rural Students and Communities
Provides a regional perspective on nursing workforce needs in Western rural areas, based on discussions with stakeholders from Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado. Highlights rural nursing student supports, clinical placements, faculty development, and preceptor development.
Author(s): Colleen Falkenstern
Date: 06/2026
Sponsoring organization: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education
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Promoting Your Teaching Health Center Dental Residency
Toolkit offering strategies to reach dental students and encourage them to consider residency programs in Teaching Health Centers. Full access to toolkit requires a free 3RNET Employer account.
Date: 06/2026
Sponsoring organizations: 3RNET, THCGME.org, The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research
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Expanding and Sustaining Rural Clinical Education: Perspectives from Health Professions Education Leaders
Summarizes themes from interviews with 21 rural clinical education leaders from 16 organizations regarding strategies to sustain and expand rural clinical education. Identifies challenges and facilitators in developing and sustaining rural clinical education sites for health professions students. Discusses strategies to strengthen cross-disciplinary partnerships that support the expansion of rural clinical education.
Author(s): Natalia V. Oster, David V. Evans, Davis G. Patterson, C. Holly A. Andrilla, Janessa M. Graves
Date: 06/2026
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Nurse-Led Mobile Clinics to Improve Rural Health Access and Disaster Preparedness: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Texas Program
Examines the impact of nurse-led mobile clinics on healthcare access, continuity of care, and disaster preparedness in rural Texas. Provides a program evaluation of the mobile clinic model using mixed methods and describes mobile clinic structure, interprofessional education (IPE), disaster preparedness and response, rural health access, sustainability, and policy implications.
Author(s): Nicole Peters Kroll, Sharon L. Dormire, Kelly L. Wilson
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 23(6), 702
Date: 05/2026
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The Decentralized Academic Health Center: A 21st-Century Model for Rural Health Innovation
Discusses the role of academic health centers in addressing rural health needs and proposes the Decentralized Academic Health Center (D-AHC) model. Compares the traditional model with D-AHC and discusses implementation through teaching and workforce, research and data, clinical partnerships and digital health, community engagement and policy, financial sustainability, and provider and community readiness. Includes a 5-phase roadmap for implementation.
Author(s): Patrick C. Hardigan, Johannes Vieweg
Citation: Health Affairs Scholar, 4(5)
Date: 05/2026
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Dementia Diagnostic Deserts: Workforce and Geographic Inequities in the Diagnostic Pathway for Cognitive Impairment
Describes the "Triple Disadvantage Zones" or the places where rurality, Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas, and social deprivation converge to create a dementia diagnostic desert resulting in both delayed diagnosis and over-testing. Discusses training gaps for nurse practitioners and physician assistants as well as policy measures to mitigate diagnosis errors.
Author(s): Zhijing Xu, Ying Xue, Yaguang Zheng, Bei Wu
Citation: Health Affairs Scholar, 4(5)
Date: 05/2026
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Governors' Policy Actions in Rural Health Workforce
Describes policy actions taken by governors to advance healthcare career pathways, education and training, and recruitment and retention, as well as policies related to licensure and scope of practice. Includes examples from state Rural Health Transformation Program project narratives.
Date: 05/2026
Sponsoring organization: National Governors Association
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Where Primary Care and Clinical Pharmacy Services 'Intersect': Louisiana Program Helps Patients Understand and Manage Medications
Features a program at Arbor Family Health in Louisiana that connects chronic disease patients with nurse health coaches and clinical pharmacists. Shares how pharmacy faculty and students from the Xavier University of Louisiana's College of Pharmacy conduct annual comprehensive medication reviews by phone.
Author(s): Gretel Kauffman
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 05/2026
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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New Insights on the Rural Public Health Workforce, with Casey Balio and Betty Bekemeier
An episode of the Exploring Rural Health podcast featuring Casey Balio, research assistant professor at the East Tennessee State University Center for Rural Health and Research, and Betty Bekemeier, director of the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. Focuses on new insights about the rural public health workforce from their recently published research study.
Date: 05/2026
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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