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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.

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
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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RN-to-BSN Programs: Challenges for Rural Nurse Education
Results of a survey of 237 schools with active RN-to-BSN programs, to ascertain the current status of rural-focused nursing education. Features statistics on proportion of RN-to-BSN students drawn from rural areas, student recruitment methods, barriers to recruiting students, availability of online courses, and challenges in online courses.
Author(s): Selina H. McKinney, Janice C. Probst, Eboni Haynes
Date: 10/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural and Minority Health Research Center (formerly the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center)
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Mayo Clinic Joins the National Effort to Train Tomorrow's Rural Surgeons
Describes challenges facing rural surgery, including workforce shortages, outlines the Mayo Clinic's development of a rural general surgery track, and identifies lessons learned in the first three years of the Mayo Clinic's program. Compares competencies required for rural surgeons and those in urban areas.
Author(s): Randy C. Lehman, Brandon G. Douglass, Stephanie F. Heller, Michael C. Roskos
Citation: Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons, 104(10)
Date: 10/2019
Type: Document
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Use of Apprenticeship to Meet Demand for Medical Assistants in the U.S.
Reports findings from a study of registered medical assistant (MA) apprenticeship programs in 12 states. Discusses the workforce needs these programs may help address, including workforce needs in rural communities. Describes the programs and discusses challenges with starting and maintaining MA apprenticeship programs.
Additional links: Policy Brief
Author(s): Andrew D. Jopson, Susan M. Skillman, Bianca K. Frogner
Date: 09/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: UW Center for Health Workforce Studies
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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
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Association of American Indian Physicians, Association of American Medical Colleges, UnitedHealth Group
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#RuralHealthChat: Rural Health Workforce Education and Training
Summary of a March 2019 Twitter chat focused on rural healthcare workforce training and education. Documents a conversation among rural health experts discussing rural provider shortages and the challenges training, recruiting, and retaining a rural healthcare workforce.
Date: 03/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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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
Type: Document
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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Report to Congress: Current State of Technology-Enabled Collaborative Learning and Capacity Building Models
Reports on the impact of technology-enabled collaborative learning and capacity building models as required by the Expanding Capacity for Health Outcomes (ECHO) Act. Examines how such models are being used to improve healthcare quality and address health workforce capacity, particularly in rural areas, the evidence behind model effectiveness, and evidence gaps. Provides recommendations on expanding model adoption and its use in continuing medical education. Appendix includes an inventory of Project ECHO models and other similar models by state and in several other countries.
Additional links: Appendix F: Evaluation of Technology-Enabled Collaborative Learning and Capacity Building Models
Date: 02/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
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Planting TREES in Rural Places: Training and Rural Health Professions Education that is Community Engaged and Sustainable
Outlines a process for academic-community engagement and decision-making for residency education. Details benefits to hospitals and local communities, and contains tools and other resources to promote exploration and consideration of the perspectives of many people and interested parties.
Author(s): Randall Longenecker, David Schmitz
Date: 01/2019
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Medical Training Collaborative (formerly the RTT Collaborative)
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Rural Medicine Realities: The Impact of Immersion on Urban-Based Medical Students
Results of a study conducted in 2017 at the University of Louisville School of Medicine Trover (ULTC) rural campus, to determine how a rural-based 8-week surgical clerkship during the third year of medical school affected students' views on rural living and practice.
Author(s): Allison M. Crump, Karie Jeter, Samantha Mullins, et al.
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 35(1), 42-48
Date: 01/2019
Type: Document
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Last Updated: 3/19/2024