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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Health workforce

Rural Youth Survey: Trends and Developments in the Attitudes and Aspirations of Rural Pennsylvania Youth
Results of a study conducted in the spring of 2021, to document the educational, career, and residential aspirations of rural Pennsylvania 9th and 11th grade students, to examine factors that shape aspirations, and to detail opportunities and barriers that youth experience. Notes that healthcare was the most common career field sought by students. Offers recommendation that additional mental health support be provided for rural youth as they return to in-person schooling after the COVID pandemic. Features demographics and statistics on career aspirations, with breakdowns by type of employment.
Author(s): Lacey Wallace, Sam Tanner, Freyca Calderon-Berumen, Lauren Jacobson
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Center for Rural Pennsylvania
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HPSA 101: Health Professional Shortage Areas Explained
Video describing Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), scoring calculations and factors affecting HPSA scores, National Health Service Corps loan repayments programs, and the role of the Virginia primary care office in identifying shortage areas in Virginia. Includes a brief history of HPSAs. Transcript available.
Date: 05/2022
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: Virginia Department of Health: Office of Health Equity
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Community Characteristics and Financial and Operational Performance of Rural Health Clinics in the United States: A Chartbook
Provides an overview of Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) in the United States, including history of the RHC program, number and distribution of RHCs, operating details, characteristics of demographics served, financial and staffing information, and quality measures. Utilizes data from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Cost Reports, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's County Health Rankings to provide comprehensive data about RHCs. Includes U.S. maps showing types of RHCs by state; demographic and socioeconomic breakdowns of populations in RHC and non-RHC counties with large rural, medium/small rural, isolated/completely rural, and urban comparisons; costs of RHC services; staffing patterns; and more.
Author(s): John A. Gale, Zachariah Croll, Jamar Croom, Louisa Munk, Yvonne Jonk
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Maine Rural Health Research Center
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Assessing the Effectiveness of Policies to Improve Access to Primary Care for Underserved Populations: Case Study Analysis: Grant County, New Mexico
Case study of policy initiatives to increase access to primary care, focusing on rural Grant County, New Mexico. Discusses challenges to expanding the primary care workforce, bringing outpatient clinics into communities, mobile clinics and telehealth, affordability, and more.
Author(s): Maanasa Kona, Megan Houston, Jalisa Clark, Emma Walsh-Alker
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Milbank Memorial Fund
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Supporting Community-Based Family Medicine Residency Training Programs in North Carolina and their Potential Impact on Healthy NC 2030
Examines ways in which training family medicine residents in rural North Carolina communities can address disparities in healthcare access and improve rural population health metrics for all subsets of the population. Describes Healthy NC 2030, a public health initiative that seeks to bridge healthcare disparities in North Carolina. Features a county-level map showing locations of training programs in rural settings and urban settings, and statistics on the distribution of family medicine residency positions in North Carolina, with breakdowns by rural or urban setting.
Author(s): Audy G. Whitman, Geniene Jones, Danny Pate, et al.
Citation: North Carolina Medical Journal, 83(3), 173-177
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
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Post-Acute and Long-term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States, 2017–2018
Describes the supply, organizational characteristics, staffing, and services offered by post-acute and long-term care providers. Provides descriptions of service users, including residents of nursing homes and residential care communities, patients receiving home health or hospice care, and people who attend adult day services centers. Features statistics including distribution of post-acute and long-term care providers in 2017-2018, with breakdowns by metropolitan, micropolitan, or other areas.
Author(s): Manisha Sengupta, Jessica Penn Lendon, Christine Caffrey, Amanuel Melekin, Priyanka Singh
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Center for Health Statistics
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Exploration of Remote Didactics at Rural Family Medicine Training Programs
Results of an electronic survey of rural family medicine residency site directors across the United States. Includes analyses through statistics with an emphasis on descriptions of current didactic practices, facilitators, and challenges to implementation. Features statistics with breakdowns by urban or rural location.
Author(s): Ying Zhang, Tessa E. Moore, Amanda Weidner, et al.
Citation: Family Medicine, 54(5), 362-363
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
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The Impact of COVID-19 on the Rural Health Care Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities
Presents an overview of key findings from interviews with stakeholders in eight states - Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming - regarding the rural healthcare landscape. Discusses rural hospital financial health, rural hospital transformation models, challenges facing the rural healthcare workforce, and the role of telehealth in increasing access to care. Provides recommendations aimed at further advancing the use of virtual care in all communities, including rural and frontier areas, beyond the temporary federal COVID-19 public health emergency flexibilities.
Author(s): Sabah Bhatnagar, Julia Harris, Tara Hartnett, et al.
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Bipartisan Policy Center
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Primary Care Clinicians in Low-Access Counties
Evaluates the weighted contribution of advanced practice providers to the primary care workforce in well-served and underserved counties in North Carolina. Features statistics on population per primary care clinician by North Carolina county and composition of the North Carolina primary care workforce from 2017-2019, and a county-level map with shadings showing percentages of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified nurse-midwives in 2017-2019.
Author(s): Adam J. Zolotor, Evan Galloway, Margaret Beal, Erin P. Fraher
Citation: North Carolina Medical Journal, 83(3), 163-168
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
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Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Hospital and Outpatient Clinician Workforce: Challenges and Policy Responses
Describes hospital and outpatient clinician healthcare workforce shortages and maldistribution both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the pandemic on the mental and physical health of the workforce. Provides an overview of federal interventions to support the healthcare workforce during the pandemic. Includes discussion on challenges specific to rural communities.
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
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