Rural Workforce Development Gets Boost from Federal Grant
The National Center for Rural Health Professions (NCRHP) of the University of Illinois Rockford will serve as the healthcare workforce training organization for the newly created Southeastern Illinois Rural Health Workforce Development Network.
The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently announced funding for a 3-year project to create a rural health workforce pipeline. The HRSA award, which is part of the federally-sponsored ‘Rural Health Workforce Development Program’, supports the establishment of the Southeastern Illinois Rural Health Workforce Development Network. Network participants include the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network (ICAHN), Hamilton Memorial Hospital, Fairfield Memorial Hospital, Frontier Community College, the Lawrence County Public Health Department, and the Center for Rural Health of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The purpose of the program is to support the development of rural health networks that focus on activities relating to recruitment and retention of primary and allied healthcare providers in rural communities. Through this grant, rural communities will take a regional approach and have the opportunity to create a model to increase awareness, identify, train, and retain ‘homegrown’ health professionals that will help ease the shortage of health professionals in southeastern Illinois.
The Network will focus on the development of community-based training and learning experiences, emphasizing local needs and taking a grassroots approach to creating sustainable resources for meeting the health professions needs in the region. Specific activities will include 4-H Health Jams, health careers camps, health professions clubs at the college level, health careers fairs, and interdisciplinary education. A unique feature of the program will be setting up extended training experiences for University of Illinois medical and pharmacy students in the region.
Counties included in the regional network are Clark, Cumberland, Crawford, Edwards, Gallatin, Hamilton, Jasper, Lawrence, Richland, Saline, Wabash, Wayne, and White.
The NCRHP’s mission is to promote the health of rural communities through partnerships in education, service, research and policy.