Challenges of Recruitment and Retention in Rural Areas

There have long been rural health care workforce shortages; however, the urgency to find real solutions has increased with the changing health care landscape. The evidence makes a compelling case to be intentional in the candidates we support and to align educational resources across multiple systems. Programs need to continually evolve, utilizing workforce data, best practices, and new technological advances. This leads the Office of Rural Health (ORH) to secure funding for therapists practicing in integrated settings and to expand loan repayment to general surgeons and providers creating access through telehealth. While access is ORH's core mission, North Carolina's rural health plan reframed the discussion around creating healthy rural communities. This will require further refinement of the critical workforce definition, and it brings to the forefront the fact that a variety of new partnerships will be key to achieving the objective of healthy rural communities.