Combating an ‘Unacceptable’ Rural Health Jobs Gap
![Combating an ‘Unacceptable’ Rural Health Jobs Gap](https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8719479_G.jpg)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA new initiative is taking aim at an issue that it says affects 70 percent of Indiana counties. The Indiana Rural Workforce Innovation Network, a program of the Linton-based Indiana Rural Health Association, is designed to identify and connect dozens of small health care facilities with qualified professionals. IRWIN is funded by a $600,000 federal grant and keys in on three potential recruiting types: recent, yet-to-be-employed allied health profession graduates from Ivy Tech Community College, current students in the Ivy Tech programs and veterans or dislocated workers already in rural communities.
The IRHA says Indiana has a total of nearly three dozen critical access hospitals in rural areas, 56 rural health clinics and almost 20 rural hospitals. These operations face challenges including lower reimbursement rates than in the past and more expensive efforts compared to their urban counterparts to attract and retain medical professionals. Ellis says nationally, more rural hospitals are closing than ever before.
The U.S. Health Resources Services Administration is funding the IRWIN initiative. Ivy Tech and the Terre Haute-based Rural Health Innovation Collaborative are partnering with the IRHA on the effort.
IRWIN will involve course work, an apprenticeship and a job placement and retention process at Ivy Tech, which Ellis says includes dental assisting, dental hygiene, paramedic science, physical therapy, nursing, health information technology, medical assisting, respiratory care and surgical technology programs.
Ellis says the program’s goals are:
- Establish a sustainable and replicable model of training allied health students in rural areas through a mature network of rural hospitals in partnership with Indiana’s community college system.
- Encourage allied health profession students to explore opportunities in rural settings and train students in these settings through incentives to participate in didactic education in rural culture and hands-on clinical training through apprenticeships within rural host sites.
- Ensure that IRWIN participants seek and secure employment in rural settings with industry-validated credentials.
The effort is targeting 50 students by the second year and 75 participants by year three. Sixty-five percent of IRHA members in a recent survey report shortages in areas highlighted by this program and Ellis says this effort is part of the organization’s push to see those numbers "tumble."
IRHA Director of Member Engagement & Development Phil Ellis heads up IRWIN and tells Inside INdiana Business there are a myriad of challenges facing hospitals outside of urban and suburban areas.