Rural Health
Resources by State: Washington
State Strategies for Strengthening Rural Health: Insights from NASHP's 2025 Annual Conference
Summarizes a session from the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) 2025 Annual Conference regarding state strategies to improve access to care in rural communities. Highlights policies from North Dakota, Washington, and West Virginia related to workforce and capacity challenges, broadband and telehealth, behavioral health access points, and linking health and social care.
Date: 09/2025
Sponsoring organization: National Academy for State Health Policy
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Summarizes a session from the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) 2025 Annual Conference regarding state strategies to improve access to care in rural communities. Highlights policies from North Dakota, Washington, and West Virginia related to workforce and capacity challenges, broadband and telehealth, behavioral health access points, and linking health and social care.
Date: 09/2025
Sponsoring organization: National Academy for State Health Policy
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Washington's Rural Oral Health Workforce
Highlights challenges in access to oral healthcare in rural Washington, workforce shortages, and geographic disparities. Emphasizes the need for strategies to support recruitment, retention, and training of oral health professionals in underserved areas. Features demographics and statistics on oral health professionals, with breakdowns by rural and nonrural areas, and Washington maps showing distribution of various oral health professionals, with shadings indicating rural and nonrural counties.
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organization: UW Center for Health Workforce Studies
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Highlights challenges in access to oral healthcare in rural Washington, workforce shortages, and geographic disparities. Emphasizes the need for strategies to support recruitment, retention, and training of oral health professionals in underserved areas. Features demographics and statistics on oral health professionals, with breakdowns by rural and nonrural areas, and Washington maps showing distribution of various oral health professionals, with shadings indicating rural and nonrural counties.
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organization: UW Center for Health Workforce Studies
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Washington Rural Obstetrical Workforce
Offers maps and tables of the obstetricians and advanced practice midwives workforce distribution in Washington in 2025. Includes county-level data and rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): S.C. Woolcock, C.H.A. Andrilla, L.A. Garberson, J.M. Graves
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Offers maps and tables of the obstetricians and advanced practice midwives workforce distribution in Washington in 2025. Includes county-level data and rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): S.C. Woolcock, C.H.A. Andrilla, L.A. Garberson, J.M. Graves
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Washington Rural Behavioral Health Workforce
Offers maps and tables of the supply and distribution of behavioral health clinicians in Washington State in 2025. Includes county-level data and rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): S.C. Woolcock, C.H.A. Andrilla, L.A. Garberson, J.M. Graves
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Offers maps and tables of the supply and distribution of behavioral health clinicians in Washington State in 2025. Includes county-level data and rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): S.C. Woolcock, C.H.A. Andrilla, L.A. Garberson, J.M. Graves
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Washington Rural Primary Care Workforce
Offers maps and tables of the primary care workforce distribution in Georgia in 2025. Includes county-level data and rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): S.C. Woolcock, C.H.A. Andrilla, L.A. Garberson, J.M. Graves
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Offers maps and tables of the primary care workforce distribution in Georgia in 2025. Includes county-level data and rural and urban comparisons.
Author(s): S.C. Woolcock, C.H.A. Andrilla, L.A. Garberson, J.M. Graves
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Risk & Protective Factors for Rural Youth Substance Use: A Report for the Rural Network
Examines youth substance use in rural areas and various risk and protective factors. Utilizes data from Washington State's Rural Network members to analyze substance use and discusses school-based, family-based, and community-based preventive factors.
Author(s): Ellie Jackson
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organizations: Rural Network, WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Examines youth substance use in rural areas and various risk and protective factors. Utilizes data from Washington State's Rural Network members to analyze substance use and discusses school-based, family-based, and community-based preventive factors.
Author(s): Ellie Jackson
Date: 08/2025
Sponsoring organizations: Rural Network, WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Conducting Research That Matters to Rural Practice and Communities
Commentary describing activities designed to improve rural clinical and community engagement in research led by the Oregon Rural Practice Research Network and the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) region Practice and Research Network. Features example solutions for meaningful engagement.
Author(s): Sebastian T. Tong, Melinda M. Davis, Allison M. Cole
Citation: Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 38(2), 603-606
Date: 08/2025
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Commentary describing activities designed to improve rural clinical and community engagement in research led by the Oregon Rural Practice Research Network and the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) region Practice and Research Network. Features example solutions for meaningful engagement.
Author(s): Sebastian T. Tong, Melinda M. Davis, Allison M. Cole
Citation: Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 38(2), 603-606
Date: 08/2025
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Household Firearm Storage Practices
Examines household firearm storage practices in the state of Washington between 2013 to 2022. Utilizes data from 77,275 adults and provides firearm storage practices according to sex, veteran status, race, presence of children in the household, age, and small town/rural, large town/suburban, or urban location.
Author(s): Kelsey M. Conrick, Samantha Banks, Julia P. Schleimer, et al.
Citation: JAMA Network Open, 8(7)
Date: 07/2025
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Examines household firearm storage practices in the state of Washington between 2013 to 2022. Utilizes data from 77,275 adults and provides firearm storage practices according to sex, veteran status, race, presence of children in the household, age, and small town/rural, large town/suburban, or urban location.
Author(s): Kelsey M. Conrick, Samantha Banks, Julia P. Schleimer, et al.
Citation: JAMA Network Open, 8(7)
Date: 07/2025
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Washington State's Anesthesia Workforce
Provides an overview of the anesthesia care workforce in Washington State as well as a literature review related to anesthesia workforce quality and gaps. Focuses on training, career pathways, scope of practice, licensure, and employment data. Examines county-level and rural versus urban data on healthcare sites, services, and healthcare professionals providing anesthesia care. Includes workforce analyses of a variety of healthcare professionals working in anesthesia, such as nurses, oral healthcare workers, physicians, and physician assistants.
Additional links: Anesthesiologist Assistants Occupational Brief, Anesthesiologists Occupational Brief, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists Occupational Brief, Dental Anesthesia Assistants Occupational Brief, Dentists Occupational Brief, Physician Assistants Occupational Brief
Author(s): Paula M. Kett, Kyla F. Woodward, Samantha W. Pollack, et al.
Date: 06/2025
Sponsoring organization: Center for Health Workforce Studies
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Provides an overview of the anesthesia care workforce in Washington State as well as a literature review related to anesthesia workforce quality and gaps. Focuses on training, career pathways, scope of practice, licensure, and employment data. Examines county-level and rural versus urban data on healthcare sites, services, and healthcare professionals providing anesthesia care. Includes workforce analyses of a variety of healthcare professionals working in anesthesia, such as nurses, oral healthcare workers, physicians, and physician assistants.
Additional links: Anesthesiologist Assistants Occupational Brief, Anesthesiologists Occupational Brief, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists Occupational Brief, Dental Anesthesia Assistants Occupational Brief, Dentists Occupational Brief, Physician Assistants Occupational Brief
Author(s): Paula M. Kett, Kyla F. Woodward, Samantha W. Pollack, et al.
Date: 06/2025
Sponsoring organization: Center for Health Workforce Studies
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Health Care Use Preceding Suicide by Firearm Compared with Suicide by Other Means — Alaska, Colorado, and Washington, 2020–2022
Discusses use of healthcare services, including mental health services, in the year prior to suicide for those who died by firearm versus other means, based on data from three healthcare organizations in Alaska, Colorado, and Washington. Includes the number of suicides by location of residence for rural, suburban, and urban areas.
Author(s): Julie E. Angerhofer, Maricela Cruz, Jennifer Shaw, et al.
Citation: MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report), 74(21), 365-371
Date: 06/2025
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Discusses use of healthcare services, including mental health services, in the year prior to suicide for those who died by firearm versus other means, based on data from three healthcare organizations in Alaska, Colorado, and Washington. Includes the number of suicides by location of residence for rural, suburban, and urban areas.
Author(s): Julie E. Angerhofer, Maricela Cruz, Jennifer Shaw, et al.
Citation: MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report), 74(21), 365-371
Date: 06/2025
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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