Funding Boost to Enhance Rural Healthcare Training in North Carolina
Efforts to address healthcare disparities in North Carolina’s rural areas are getting a significant boost. The University of North Carolina System has allocated nearly $6.5 million to enhance training programs for healthcare professionals in underserved regions, including the High Country.
Initiated by the General Assembly, the Rural Residency Medical Education and Training Fund was established three years ago with the goal of increasing the number of healthcare providers in rural communities. Among the recipients, Appalachian State University’s Beaver College of Health Sciences has been awarded four grants aimed at advancing programs in social work, nursing, and behavioral health.
The Mountain Area Health Education Center is also set to benefit from the funding. It plans to use the grant to further pharmacist residency training, expand its rural fellowship programs statewide, and enhance its family medicine program in Boone.
Dr. William Hathaway, CEO of the Mountain Area Health Education Center, highlights the complexity involved in treating patients with special needs and intellectual disabilities. He states, “Not every physician who’s trained in family medicine or primary care is adept at that, and so we have faculty members on our campus and in the Boone area who will be focusing on training residents to develop those skills so that they can go serve their communities.”
According to Hathaway, the impact of the grant will be directly felt by patients through the provision of services that are currently lacking in these areas.
