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.

Other Project Examples

Rural Nevada EMS Conference

Updated/reviewed January 2026

• 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 2025, 132 individuals attended the conference in-person.

Club Scrub

Updated/reviewed December 2025

• Need: Impact healthcare workforce shortages in rural Wisconsin.
• Intervention: The Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative, leveraging evidence-informed grow-your-own pipeline activities to generate interest in health-related professions, partnered with the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health to create the Club Scrub program for 7th and 8th graders.
• Results: The original 2006-2007 program results revealed that participants gained a better understanding of career options in the healthcare industry and annual Club Scrub events continue to be sponsored by several Wisconsin rural healthcare delivery systems.

Wisconsin Collaborative for Rural Graduate Medical Education

Updated/reviewed November 2025

• Need: Primary care physicians in the rural areas of Wisconsin.
• Intervention: A GME collaborative and technical assistance center that provides leadership, GME expertise, and support for expanding rural graduate medical education in Wisconsin.
• Results: The collaborative expanded rural graduate medical education opportunities which now include over 30 rural-focused residency programs. There are several GME opportunities in specialties ranging from family medicine to surgery, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, internal medicine and more.

McPherson Hospital High School Internship Program

Added September 2025

• Need: To provide high school students with hands-on health care experience while filling high-need roles in a rural hospital.
• Intervention: An internship program for high school students at McPherson Center for Health in McPherson, Kansas.
• Results: More than 30 students have participated in the program since 2023, seven of whom have become part-time or full-time employees at the hospital as a result.

Project PROMISE

Updated/reviewed September 2025

• Need: An increased interest among young people to pursue a medical career in rural North Carolina
• Intervention: Two medical students started a program that gives high school seniors medical academic training, mentor relationships, and hands-on experience in rural North Carolina facilities.
• Results: Project PROMISE has 40 high school completers, 19 of whom are pursuing an undergraduate degree with an interest in studying medicine. Two students are currently in medical school, with plans to work in a rural area once finished.

Structured Training for Rural Enhancement of Community Health in Obstetrics (STRETCH-OB)

Updated/reviewed June 2025

• Need: To improve maternal and birth outcomes in rural and underserved areas by increasing the number of family medicine physicians in these areas who have high-quality, evidence-based obstetrical care skills.
• Intervention: The STRETCH-OB program trains a select number of family medicine residents at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford each year to provide high-quality maternity care, including surgical obstetrical care.
• Results: Four STRETCH-OB residents have graduated as of June 2025 and all have cesarean section privileges in their practice.

Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center-Nevada

Updated/reviewed April 2025

• 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 2024, PAETC-NV trained more than 1,800 healthcare providers across Nevada to increase clinical capacity in the care, screening, and prevention of HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases, and hepatitis C.

Targeted Rural Underserved Track (TRUST) Program

Updated/reviewed April 2025

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

University of Minnesota Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Rural Rotation

Updated/reviewed April 2025

• Need: To address shortages of nurse practitioners and mental health professionals in rural Minnesota.
• Intervention: The University of Minnesota (UMN) School of Nursing implemented a 40-hour rural rotation for students in the psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner program.
• Results: 29 students completed rural rotations in communities across the state; several students voiced a new openness to practicing in a rural area after participating in the program.

Marshall University Rural Psychiatry Residency Program

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.

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