By Amber Walker, Grants Development Associate (Healthcare)
An estimated 60 million people, nearly 1 in 5 Americans, live in a rural area. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, these rural areas are seeing increasing shortages in the healthcare workforce. To alleviate the burden healthcare workforce shortages have on rural communities and the hospital systems that serve them, governments and private associations have prioritized financial interventions and incentives.
One example is the work of the Health Resources Service Administration (HRSA) to develop grants that directly benefit medical providers and beyond. The Delta Region Rural Health Workforce Training Program developed a holistic strategy for rural hospitals to recruit and retain talent in support positions that include but are not limited to administrative, medical coding and billing, supply chain, materials management, and clinical documentation.
Federal and private organizations, such as the American Medical Association, provide a variety of incentives directly to individual providers and medical students to study, train, and work in rural areas. These incentives are commonly stipends for travel, scholarships for coursework, or loan forgiveness in exchange for years of service.
Another strategy to bring health services to rural communities is the advancement of telehealth. Several programs at the federal level support connecting rural healthcare providers with urban providers to access a provider talent pool who are unable to physically relocate to a rural space. The Healthcare Connect Fund provides financial support to rural entities or entities that are part of a majority rural consortium by funding the purchase of broadband services, networks, and other equipment that facilitates telehealth services.
If your organization is a rural entity interested in workforce retention or training, or you are an individual interested in working in a rural area, the funding programs mentioned throughout this article are a great starting point. These programs are just a small fraction of a grant landscape that has centered on the rural healthcare workforce.