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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Health workforce

Rx for the Rural Healthcare Workforce and Access to Care
Podcast with Tom Morris of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy about trends related to the rural healthcare workforce and efforts to overcome challenges. Discusses the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, rural hospital closures, telehealth, graduate medical education in rural areas, community health workers and community paramedics, funding opportunities to promote healthcare access in rural areas, the opioid crisis, and more.
Author(s): Jessica Nicholson
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: The Conference Board
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Convergence of Service Providers and Managers' Perspectives on Strengths, Gaps, and Priorities for Rural Health System Redesign: A Whole-Systems Qualitative Study in Washington County, Maine
Presents themes from interviews with 46 direct healthcare service providers between September - November 2020 in Washington County, Maine. Explores existing clinical service strengths, local and state gaps in services and the impact of those gaps on quality and safety, and priorities and strategies for sustaining or restoring essential healthcare services.
Author(s): Rebecca L. West, Judy Margo, Jeff Brown, Amy Dowley, Susan Haas
Citation: Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 13
Date: 05/2022
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Provider and Patient Satisfaction With the Dental Therapy Workforce at Apple Tree Dental
Describes satisfaction of clinical providers, organizational administrators, and patients with the dental therapy workforce at Apple Tree Dental Centers, a not-for-profit community dental organization with locations in urban and rural Minnesota. Features demographics with breakdowns by urban or rural location of clinic and residence of patients.
Author(s): Margaret Langelier, Simona Surdu, Ellen O'Malley
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: Center for Health Workforce Studies
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Rural Youth Survey: Trends and Developments in the Attitudes and Aspirations of Rural Pennsylvania Youth
Results of a study conducted in the spring of 2021, to document the educational, career, and residential aspirations of rural Pennsylvania 9th and 11th grade students, to examine factors that shape aspirations, and to detail opportunities and barriers that youth experience. Notes that healthcare was the most common career field sought by students. Offers recommendation that additional mental health support be provided for rural youth as they return to in-person schooling after the COVID pandemic. Features demographics and statistics on career aspirations, with breakdowns by type of employment.
Author(s): Lacey Wallace, Sam Tanner, Freyca Calderon-Berumen, Lauren Jacobson
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: Center for Rural Pennsylvania
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Community Characteristics and Financial and Operational Performance of Rural Health Clinics in the United States: A Chartbook
Provides an overview of Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) in the United States, including history of the RHC program, number and distribution of RHCs, operating details, characteristics of demographics served, financial and staffing information, and quality measures. Utilizes data from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Cost Reports, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's County Health Rankings to provide comprehensive data about RHCs. Includes U.S. maps showing types of RHCs by state; demographic and socioeconomic breakdowns of populations in RHC and non-RHC counties with large rural, medium/small rural, isolated/completely rural, and urban comparisons; costs of RHC services; staffing patterns; and more.
Author(s): John A. Gale, Zachariah Croll, Jamar Croom, Louisa Munk, Yvonne Jonk
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: Maine Rural Health Research Center
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Assessing the Effectiveness of Policies to Improve Access to Primary Care for Underserved Populations: Case Study Analysis: Grant County, New Mexico
Case study of policy initiatives to increase access to primary care, focusing on rural Grant County, New Mexico. Discusses challenges to expanding the primary care workforce, bringing outpatient clinics into communities, mobile clinics and telehealth, affordability, and more.
Author(s): Maanasa Kona, Megan Houston, Jalisa Clark, Emma Walsh-Alker
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: Milbank Memorial Fund
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Supporting Community-Based Family Medicine Residency Training Programs in North Carolina and their Potential Impact on Healthy NC 2030
Examines ways in which training family medicine residents in rural North Carolina communities can address disparities in healthcare access and improve rural population health metrics for all subsets of the population. Describes Healthy NC 2030, a public health initiative that seeks to bridge healthcare disparities in North Carolina. Features a county-level map showing locations of training programs in rural settings and urban settings, and statistics on the distribution of family medicine residency positions in North Carolina, with breakdowns by rural or urban setting.
Author(s): Audy G. Whitman, Geniene Jones, Danny Pate, et al.
Citation: North Carolina Medical Journal, 83(3), 173-177
Date: 05/2022
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Post-Acute and Long-term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States, 2017–2018
Describes the supply, organizational characteristics, staffing, and services offered by post-acute and long-term care providers. Provides descriptions of service users, including residents of nursing homes and residential care communities, patients receiving home health or hospice care, and people who attend adult day services centers. Features statistics including distribution of post-acute and long-term care providers in 2017-2018, with breakdowns by metropolitan, micropolitan, or other areas.
Author(s): Manisha Sengupta, Jessica Penn Lendon, Christine Caffrey, Amanuel Melekin, Priyanka Singh
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: National Center for Health Statistics
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Exploration of Remote Didactics at Rural Family Medicine Training Programs
Results of an electronic survey of rural family medicine residency site directors across the United States. Includes analyses through statistics with an emphasis on descriptions of current didactic practices, facilitators, and challenges to implementation. Features statistics with breakdowns by urban or rural location.
Author(s): Ying Zhang, Tessa E. Moore, Amanda Weidner, et al.
Citation: Family Medicine, 54(5), 362-363
Date: 05/2022
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The Impact of COVID-19 on the Rural Health Care Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities
Presents an overview of key findings from interviews with stakeholders in eight states - Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming - regarding the rural healthcare landscape. Discusses rural hospital financial health, rural hospital transformation models, challenges facing the rural healthcare workforce, and the role of telehealth in increasing access to care. Provides recommendations aimed at further advancing the use of virtual care in all communities, including rural and frontier areas, beyond the temporary federal COVID-19 public health emergency flexibilities.
Author(s): Sabah Bhatnagar, Julia Harris, Tara Hartnett, et al.
Date: 05/2022
Sponsoring organization: Bipartisan Policy Center
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