Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Scope of practice

Understanding and Overcoming Barriers to Rural Training in Family Medicine Obstetrics Fellowships
Highlights a study on access to rural-focused family medicine obstetrics (FM OB) fellowships for family medicine residency graduates. Explores the availability of rural-specific FM OB fellowships and the challenges programs face in providing rurally-oriented training to family medicine physicians. Breaks down data by fellowship type, training curriculum, and rurality of location, among other measures.
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
view details
Access to Maternity Providers: Midwives and Birth Centers
Provides an overview of the role of certified nurse-midwives and birth centers in Medicaid and how beneficiaries use these services. Describes policy issues and barriers to expanding access to midwives and birth centers, including payment policies; contracting with managed care organizations; licensure, certification, and accreditation; scope of practice; and limited supply. Includes rural considerations throughout.
Date: 05/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission
view details
Rural Versus Urban Family Medicine Residency Scope of Training and Practice
Compares rural and urban residency programs related to graduates' perceptions of preparation for practice as well as postgraduation scope of practice (SOP). Examines 6,483 physicians surveyed 3 years after residency graduation and 44,325 physicians surveyed every 7 to 10 years after certification. Provides data on rural versus urban residency graduates and discusses differences in graduates' experiences by residency location.
Author(s): Samantha W. Pollack, C. Holly A. Andrilla, Lars Peterson, et al.
Citation: Family Medicine, 55
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
view details
Supporting and Sustaining the Current and Future Workforce to Care for People with Serious Illness: Proceedings of a Workshop (2023)
Summarizes discussions from an April 2023 public workshop exploring strategies and approaches to address major workforce challenges, including health professional well-being, workforce shortages, workforce training and retention, and advancing the diversity, equity, and inclusion of the workforce. Includes a section on well-being of the clinical workforce in rural areas.
Author(s): Roundtable on Quality Care for People with Serious Illness
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
view details
State Strategies to Support the Future of the Primary Care Physician and Nursing Workforce
Discusses primary care physician and nursing workforce challenges, including the shortage of these providers in rural and underserved areas. Describes policies and strategies implemented by states to address these challenges. Offers resources for states, health systems, and academic institutions exploring innovative strategies to address healthcare workforce challenges.
Author(s): Elaine Chhean, Anita Cardwell, Lauren Block, Sarah Tocher
Date: 12/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Academy for State Health Policy
view details
'Filling the Cracks': How a Rural Maine Community Kept its 24/7 Urgent Care Open with Paramedics
Features a pilot program serving rural Maine where paramedics take shifts staffing the local health center after-hours and on weekends.
Author(s): Gretel Kauffman
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 10/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
view details
Northern Border Regional Commission State and Region Chartbooks: A Health-Focused Landscape Analysis
Webinar describing a project compiling the most recent publicly available data related to health and healthcare access at the county and state level for Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. Discusses healthcare professional shortage areas and highlights counties with worse health outcomes than other counties in the region. Features statistics on demographics with breakdowns by rural location, socioeconomic characteristics, access to care, health outcomes and behaviors, community safety, death rates and top causes of death, internet access, insurance coverage, telehealth policies, scope of practice for various provider types, and maps showing Heath Professional Shortage Areas and locations of Rural Health Clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and Critical Access Hospitals.
Additional links: Presentation Slides, Transcript
Author(s): Katherine Ahrens
Date: 06/2022
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organizations: Maine Rural Health Research Center, Rural Health Research Gateway
view details
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
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Center for Health Workforce Studies
view details
The Northern Border Region: A Health-Focused Landscape Analysis
Chartbook examining population health and healthcare access for Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, and for the region overall. Identifies strengths and assets of the Northern Border region states, as well as opportunities for improvement. Features demographics and statistics on quality of care, health outcomes, health behaviors, mortality rates and causes, Health Professional Shortage Areas, telehealth policies, and telehealth grants awarded from 2018-2021. Includes maps showing locations of substance use treatment facilities, Rural Health Clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and hospitals.
Author(s): Katherine Ahrens, Amanda Burgess, Carly Milkowski, et al.
Date: 04/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Maine Rural Health Research Center, Northern Border Regional Commission
view details
Learning From COVID-19-Related Flexibilities: Moving Toward More Person-Centered Medicare and Medicaid Programs
Presents a person-centered framework to facilitate policymakers' decisions regarding the future of COVID-19-related temporary regulatory flexibilities. Identifies priority flexibilities that should be considered for permanence, modification, or further evaluation. Covers regulatory flexibilities regarding telehealth, scope of practice, Medicare Advantage requirements, and more. Includes rural references throughout.
Date: 03/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Health Management Associates, Manatt Health, The Scan Foundation
view details