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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Dental workforce

Rural Oral Health Seminar Toolkit
Toolkit highlights resources and best practices for dental schools looking to create a rural oral health seminar. Discusses the importance of providing a rural-focused seminar for dental students and how rural experience and exposure can aid in recruitment of oral health professionals to rural areas with dental health professional shortage designations. Provides examples and best practices for constructing the seminar.
Date: 01/2025
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Association
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Tennessee Uninsured Adult Healthcare Safety Net: 2024 Annual Report
Reports on Tennessee's uninsured population, state safety net funding, and services provided in 2024. Lists safety net service locations, including community and faith-based clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, dental clinics, and more. Provides county-by-county data on primary, oral, and specialty care population-to-provider ratios, and includes county-level maps of Health Resource Shortage Areas. Mentions rural throughout.
Date: 01/2025
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Tennessee Department of Health
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2024 West Virginia Health Sciences and Rural Health Report
Review of medical school enrollment, licensing rates, student debt ratios, residency training, and retention rates in West Virginia, with special focus on the Rural Health Initiative Program. Includes dental and pharmacy program profiles, and describes the Medical Student Loan Program and the Health Sciences Service Program, providing financial awards to health professionals who agree to practice in underserved areas of West Virginia.
Date: 12/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission
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Select Committee on Advancing Rural and Small Town Health Care Final Report - To the General Assembly of Virginia
Recommendations for improvement in healthcare in rural Virginia, based on information from meetings with providers and citizens in rural areas. Areas of focus are health workforce, maternal health, dental care, obesity, telehealth, and transportation.
Date: 12/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Commonwealth of Virginia, House Select Committee on Advancing Rural and Small Town Health Care
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Dental Clinic Deserts in the US: Spatial Accessibility Analysis
Provides a spatial analysis of 205,762 active U.S. dentists and examines access to dental clinics cross the country. Includes maps that show county-level dental shortages as well as demographic breakdowns of residents, such as race/ethnicity, poverty, insurance status, rurality, and more.
Author(s): Shahinoor Rahman, Jeffrey C. Blossom, Ichiro Kawachi, Renuka Tipirneni, Hawazin W. Elani
Citation: JAMA Health Forum, 7(12)
Date: 12/2024
Type: Document
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Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (ACTPCMD) Meeting Minutes, November 15, 2024
Summarizes the Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (ACTPCMD) meeting held on November 15, 2024. Features a presentation and discussion on tracking Title VII Trainees and a presentation from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Office of Tribal Affairs, among other things. Covers recommendations for ACTPCMD's 23rd Report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary and Congress and topics for the 24th report.
Date: 11/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry
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State of the U.S. Health Care Workforce, 2024
Offers demographic data on a variety of health professions from data sources between 2019 and 2023. Examines distribution, education and licensing, and projected shortages for the physician, nursing, and oral health fields. Describes challenges contributing to health workforce shortages. Highlights nonmetropolitan workforce shortages and state by state comparison of physician distribution.
Date: 11/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Health Resources and Services Administration, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis
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Trends in North Carolina's Oral Health Workforce
Provides 2000-2022 data on the oral health workforce in North Carolina. Includes metro versus nonmetro supply of dentists and dental hygienists per 10,000 residents, county-level distribution of dentists added to the workforce, oral healthcare workforce demographics, dentistry and hygienist education programs, and more.
Author(s): Brooke Lombardi, Catherine Moore, Haley Simons, et al.
Citation: North Carolina Medical Journal, 85(6)
Date: 11/2024
Type: Document
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Trends in the Health Workforce Supply in the Rural U.S.
Describes trends in the supply and distribution of clinicians in primary care, behavioral health, and obstetrical care, as well as dentists, surgeons, community health workers, and home health aides. Examines the availability of workforce data for professions important for rural communities, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using various health workforce data sources for rural health research. Features statistics with breakdowns by 5 levels of population density.
Author(s): C. Holly A. Andrilla, Sara C. Woolcock, Lisa A. Garberson, et al.
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
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Resources for Dental Care Workforce in Health Centers
Discusses access to oral health in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and disparities experienced by underserved populations in rural and low-income communities. Provides examples and strategies from communities to effectively train, secure, and maximize the oral health workforce.
Additional links: 11 Shining Star Case Examples, State Policies & Strategies Brief Table, State Policies & Strategies Brief: Strengthen and Expand the Dental Workforce in Health Centers, State Policies & Strategies Guide: Strengthen and Expand The Dental Workforce In Health Centers
Date: 10/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Association of Community Health Centers
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