Education and Training of the Rural Healthcare Workforce – Models and Innovations

These stories feature model programs and successful rural projects that can serve as a source of ideas and provide lessons others have learned. Some of the projects or programs may no longer be active. Read about the criteria and evidence-base for programs included.

Effective Examples

OHSU Rural Surgery Training
Updated/reviewed September 2022

• Need: General surgeons are needed in rural communities.
• Intervention: Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is sending residents to complete a general surgery rotation in rural southern Oregon.
• Results: 37% of the graduates of the rural residency program are now practicing in a rural setting. The residents remain more likely than other OHSU residents to enter general surgery practice and to serve in a community of fewer than 50,000 people.

MU AHEC Summer Community Program
Updated/reviewed March 2021

• Need: Lack of healthcare providers, specifically physicians, in rural Missouri.
• Intervention: Rising second-year medical students at University of Missouri's School of Medicine are given the opportunity to participate in a clinical program in a rural community setting.
• Results: Almost half of the participants from 1996-2010 chose to practice in rural locations upon graduation.

Promising Examples

Successfully Training and Educating Pre-medical Students (STEPS)
Updated/reviewed December 2022

• Need: To increase the number of primary care providers in northeast Kentucky.
• Intervention: STEPS provides support such as physician shadowing, mock interviews, and MCAT practice courses/exams for regional students applying to medical school.
• Results: More than 70% of participants have been accepted into medical school. The program has been replicated among most of Kentucky's regional AHECs.

TUSM-MMC Program Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship
Updated/reviewed April 2019

• Need: To fill vacant medical positions in Maine's rural medical facilities.
• Intervention: The Tufts Maine Track LIC program offers clerkships in rural medical facilities, exposing medical school students to the positives and possibilities that rural practices have to offer.
• Results: The program has seen an increase in students' interest to practice in rural Maine. The majority have pursued medical careers in one of the 6 core specialties studied during their clerkship.

Other Project Examples

Right Side Up Falls Prevention
Updated/reviewed March 2023

• Need: Falling is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in adults over the age of 65.
• Intervention: The Right Side Up program was implemented in rural Otter Tail County to address the prevention and management of falls and risk for falls through in-home assessments given by interdisciplinary healthcare professionals and students.
• Results: Short-term outcomes revealed 100% of participants found the visit and recommendations for falls prevention to be helpful, and 78% implemented these recommendations.

Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center-Nevada
Updated/reviewed February 2023

• Need: To improve and increase prevention and care services for HIV, STDs, hepatitis C, and other infectious diseases.
• Intervention: PAETC-NV provides clinical and didactic trainings, conferences, technical assistance, capacity building, webinars, and other services to providers and healthcare organizations statewide.
• Results: In 2022, PAETC-NV trained more than 1,400 healthcare providers across Nevada to increase clinical capacity in the care, screening, and prevention of HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases, COVID-19, and hepatitis C.

Simulation in Motion-South Dakota (SIM-SD) EMS Educational Outreach Program
Updated/reviewed February 2023

• 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.

Targeted Rural Underserved Track (TRUST) Program
Updated/reviewed February 2023

• 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, underserved communities across a five-state radius.
• Results: Long-lasting connections have been formed among regional and underserved communities, medical students, and rural health professionals, producing more rural physicians as a result.

Rural Nevada EMS Conference
Updated/reviewed January 2023

• 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 2022, 214 people attended the in-person conference.

Hawai'i Island Family Medicine Residency
Updated/reviewed December 2022

• Need: Hawai'i is experiencing a huge shortage of family medicine physicians.
• Intervention: The Hawai'i Island Family Medicine Residency (HIFMR) program uses an interprofessional team-based approach so residents learn how to care for many types of patients in different healthcare settings.
• Results: Since 2017, HIFMR has graduated a class of 3 to 6 Board-certified family medicine physicians annually. Most graduates have remained in the state to practice medicine; those who have left have entered fellowship programs and plan to return to Hawai'i Island to practice.

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