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Education and Training of the Rural Healthcare Workforce – Resources

Selected recent or important resources focusing on Education and Training of the Rural Healthcare Workforce.

PharmD Concentration Helps Pharmacy Students Prepare for a Career in Rural America
Features the Rural Pharmacy Practice program, a concentration for PharmD students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy who are interested in working in rural communities. Describes how the program was created. Discusses the experiences students have, including conducting community needs assessments and related population health projects.
Author(s): Allee Mead
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 10/2020
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Profiles of Rural Medical Educators: Conversations with our Nation's Experts on Reversing Rural Physician Shortages
E-book featuring conversations with 16 prominent educators, offering insights on training and retaining medical doctors in rural communities. Includes perspectives of current and past National Rural Health Association members and national experts on reversing rural physician shortages and ways in which to deal with inadequate funding and resources. Intended for educators, politicians, physicians, administrators, medical students, funders, and rural communities seeking to recruit and retain excellent doctors.
Author(s): Rural Medical Educator Group
Date: 08/2020
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Association
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Strengthening Primary Care and Oral Health Education and Training of Future and Current Health Professionals for Rural and Underserved Populations: Sixteenth Annual Report to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Congress
Offers policy and program development recommendations to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to strengthen primary care at a time of great challenge. Recommendations cover residency training in primary care and dentistry that provide direct care to rural and undeserved communities and improvements that would help to address primary care workforce issues and fall outside of Title VII programs.
Date: 07/2020
Sponsoring organization: Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry
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Special Needs in Rural America: Implications for Healthcare Workforce Education, Training, and Practice
Offers policy recommendations to strengthen rural health workforce training and improve access to healthcare in rural areas. Addresses the health and social needs of rural America through evidence-based health workforce investments in education, training, and practice. Examines disparities in health and access to care in rural areas, and mismatch in supply and demand.
Date: 07/2020
Sponsoring organization: Council on Graduate Medical Education
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Practicing Holistic Review in Medical Education
Issue brief that explores holistic review in medical school admissions and key issues related to diversifying and assessing medical school applicants and cohorts in order to expand the healthcare workforce in rural, minority, and underserved areas. Discusses the history and purpose of holistic review, which considers not only academic measures of potential success but also applicants' life experiences, socioeconomic background, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability status, among other characteristics. Recaps informant interviews describing issues and lessons learned from medical school administrators, particularly related to applicant evaluation and emerging assessment methods.
Author(s): Tim Bates, Sunita Mutha, Janet Coffman
Date: 07/2020
Sponsoring organization: Healthforce Center at UCSF
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Implementing Healthcare Career Pathway Training Programs in Rural Settings: Responsive Approaches by Tribal HPOG 2.0 Grantees
Examines opportunities and challenges in implementing healthcare education and training programs in rural and tribal communities. Describes how the Tribal Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) 2.0 grantees used their communities' strengths in developing their programs. Highlights the use of partnerships, strategies for addressing geographic isolation and improving access, and methods for ensuring communication and engagement.
Date: 02/2020
Sponsoring organization: Administration for Children and Families
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Targeted Medical School Admissions: A Strategic Process for Meeting Our Social Mission
Results of a 2018 survey of admissions personnel at allopathic and osteopathic medical schools about admissions strategies aimed at recruitment of students likely to practice in rural or urban underserved areas, or primary care. Features statistics on recruitment and selection activities of medical schools and characteristics of applicants, with breakdowns by rural, urban underserved, or primary care categories.
Author(s): David V. Evans, Andrew D. Jopson, C. Holly A. Andrilla, Randall L. Longenecker, Davis G. Patterson
Citation: Family Medicine, 52(7), 474-482
Date: 2020
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Health Care Workforce: Views on Expanding Medicare Graduate Medical Education Funding to Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants
Describes the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Medicare Graduate Medical Education (GME) program. Provides an overview of current federal funding for physician, nurse practitioner (NP), and physician assistant (PA) training. Explores the potential benefits and challenges of expanding the Medicare GME program to include funding for graduate NP and PA training.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 12/2019
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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Expanding the Native American Health Care Workforce
Offers recommendations for increasing the number of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) medical school applicants, students, and graduates based on a summit, Populating the Native Health Care Workforce with American Indian and Alaska Native Physicians. Discusses the distribution of AI/AN physicians and the need for more AI/AN physicians to address health workforce shortages and disparities in Indian Country.
Date: 08/2019
Sponsoring organizations: Association of American Indian Physicians, Association of American Medical Colleges, UnitedHealth Group
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Examining the Cost Effectiveness of Teaching Health Centers
Examines areas where the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program can produce savings, focusing on physician spending for patient encounters during and after residency training and patient Medicaid and Medicare insurance coverage. Identifies the location of THCGME programs and highlights program outcomes, including the percent of graduates who work in rural and underserved areas and practice primary care.
Author(s): Candice Chen, Leighton Ku, Marsha Regenstein, Fitzhugh Mullan
Date: 03/2019
Sponsoring organizations: Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health, George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health Department of Health Policy and Management, RCHN Community Health Foundation
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