Best Practices for Addressing Health Professional Shortages in Rural Communities

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• Best Practices for Addressing Health Professional
  Shortages in Rural Communities
• The Colorado Trust
• Nancy Csuti and Laurel Petralia
• Evaluation consultants
• Kaia Gallagher, Kim Riley
• Health Professions Initiative
• Building Colorados future health professions
  workforce

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BEST PRACTICES FOR ADDRESSING HEALTH PROFESSIONAL
SHORTAGES IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

• OVERVIEW OF THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS INITIATIVE
• What types of programs are being funded?
• What types of students are being supported?
• EMERGING LESSONS RE BEST PRACTICES FOR ADDRESSING
  HEALTH PROFESSIONAL SHORTAGES
• Grow-your-Own
• Rural Immersion Training

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THE COLORADO TRUSTHEALTH PROFESSIONS INITIATIVE

• Three year (2005-2008), 10.2 million
  initiative
• Funding to increase the number of physicians,
  dentists, pharmacists, nurses and allied health
  professionals
• 21 grantee organizations hospitals,
  universities, community colleges and community
  health centers

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Health Professions Initiative Partnership
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HOW DO THE TCT-HPI GRANTEES DIFFER FROM ONE
ANOTHER?

• Train different types of health professionals
• Work at different points along a training
  continuum
• Represent different types of organizations and
  training institutions

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Students
Training
Crop of Healthcare Providers
Jobs
COMMUNITY
7
Pre Career
Allied Health
Nursing
Advanced
Students
Training
Jobs
COMMUNITY
8
HPI Grantees with a Rural Focus by Professional
Training Category
Pre-Career 2
Emergency Worker 3
Allied Health 9
Nursing 14
Mid-Level Provider 1
Psycho-Social Provider 2
Doctorate 4
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HOW ARE THE HPI GRANTEES DEVELOPING A TRAINING
INFRASTRUCTURE?
Direct Training 61
Expanded Training to New Students 57
Developing New Curriculum 30
Offering Scholarships or Support 22
Developing New Training Sites 22
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HOW WILL THE HPI IMPACT HEALTH PROFESSIONAL
RECRUITMENT/RETENTION IN RURAL AREAS?

• HPI GRANTEES ARE WORKING TO
• Increase the geographic accessibility of training
  programs in rural/underserved areas
• Increase the financial accessibility of training
  to rural/underserved residents
• Meet the unique needs of non-traditional students
• Prepare students to work in rural/underserved
  settings

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WHO ARE THE HPI STUDENTS?
Average Age 33
Percent Women 82
Percent From a Rural Area 53
Percent Who Want to Work in a Rural Area 38
Percent in Nursing Training 33
Percent in Allied Health Training 49
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GROW-YOUR-OWN STRATEGIES

• Begin with recruiting students into the health
  professions
• Develop and strengthen training capacity in rural
  settings
• Incorporate financial and other types of support
  for health professional students
• Focus on training students for a unique role in
  rural settings

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PREPARING STUDENTS FOR A UNIQUE ROLE AS RURAL
PROVIDERS

• Health professionals in rural/ underserved
  communities are
• -- Likely to serve in a generalist role
• -- Likely to have less support from other health
  professionals
• -- Benefit from training opportunities that
  anticipate these types of roles

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PROVIDING SUPPORT TO HEALTH PROFESSIONAL STUDENTS

• Most HPI students are older
• Many are seeking to advance their training (e.g.,
  through career-lattice programs)
• Many are supporting families and need flexible
  training opportunities
• Many are returning to school and need academic
  support

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IMPLICATIONS FOR COMMUNITY-BASED RURAL
RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION (R/R) STRATEGIES

• R/R strategies need to encompass a long range
  perspective starting with the recruitment of
  students into health careers.
• Communities should partner and support rurally
  based training programs.
• Grow-your-own students will be more successful
  when programs offer varied types of support,
  financial, academic and social.
• Students anticipating a rural career should be
  offered training opportunities to prepare them to
  work within rural settings.

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CONTACT
INFORMATIONKaia Gallagher, Ph.D.,
PresidentCenter for Research Strategies225 East
16th Avenue, 1150Denver, Colorado 80203(303)
860-1705kaia.gallagher_at_crsllc.org
Laurel Petralia, MS Program OfficerThe
Colorado Trust1600 Sherman StreetDenver,
Colorado 80203(303) 837-1200laurel_at_coloradotrust
.org