Montana AHEC Regions |
 |
|
|
|
|
Greetings!
As you know, healthcare workforce shortages are a real and growing concern, in Montana and across the nation. Montana Area Health Education Centers and the Office of Rural Health are working to address these healthcare workforce needs, particularly in the rural and underserved areas of our state. Thanks for taking a moment to learn about our programs and activities.
Welcome to the 3rd Edition of
the Montana AHEC (Area Health Education Center)
and Office of Rural Health (ORH) E-Newsletter
Rural Health Delivery |
| Program Office Update - MSU Bozeman
|
 |
Montana Rural Health Initiative Incubator |
Due to the positive response to the pilot program, the Montana Rural Health Initiative (RHI) is proud to announce the second round of the Incubator. The Incubator is designed to help rural communities hatch and grow projects aimed at improving community health through nutrition and physical activity efforts. We are excited about the initial success of this component of the RHI and look forward to continuing to serve as a catalyst for the expansion of nutrition and physical activity initiatives across the state.
The Incubator supports collaboration within the RHI health and wellness community and makes Montana a model for state action that can be effective in advancing disease prevention and creating a state-wide culture of wellness. We hope you will join with us on the website, in the webinars or through the Incubator to stimulate increased health and wellness activity throughout the state.
If you are starting or need assistance with a current program in your community, you are invited to apply to the Incubator. Applications are due no later than April 9th, 2010.
Please contact Shalina Mirza for more information and how to apply.
Shalina.mirza@montana.edu |
|
StudentMAX |
|
The Montana Area Health Education Center, in partnership with MSU-Great Falls College of Technology, will be offering a new clinical placement scheduling program starting in 2010. StudentMax is an online program designed to improve the efficacy and capacity of health professional education through innovation, collaboration and coordination of clinical placements. StudentMAX® was originally developed to coordinate clinical placement for student nurses within Oregon and Southwest Washington. Healthcare leaders from the region's hospitals and schools found the placement process at the time to be cumbersome, time-consuming, and redundant. It has expanded into nine other states and now encompasses a variety of health professions.
The goal in Montana is to create a calendar of existing clinical placements in the state for several health professions. Next the educational programs and clinical sites can identify other opportunities that exist for clinical education (for example, unused hours during the week on certain floors and departments, or even facilities that are not currently being used for clinical education.) Other states have found that StudentMax has made it easier to arrange clinical education by providing a clear picture of the existing schedule as well as identifying open times, resulting in fewer phone calls and reshuffling of the schedule, as well as overall improved communication.
The project will be piloted in 2010. A meeting with all potential partners will be scheduled for early April.
|
| South Central MT AHEC Update - Dillon
|
|
Montana State Loan Repayment Program |
A new Montana State Loan Repayment Program has been funded and will be administered by the Southe Central MT AHEC, in conjunction with the Department of Public Health and Human Services.
DPHHS submitted a National Health Service Corps State Loan Repayment Program (NHSC SLRP) application that required a dollar for dollar match. The state legislature authorized $75,000 state special revenue to support recruitment and retention of health professionals in high need areas, which is being used for the needed matching funds.
The program requires that health providers receiving loan repayment work in a federally designated shortage area, accept Medicaid and Medicare patients, and post a sliding fee scale. This program will provide loan repayment of up to $15,000 per year for two years, with an optional third year. Nine providers will be supported each year.
Providers eligible for the program will include:
Non-physician primary care - Primary Care Certified Nurse Practitioners, Certified Nurse-Midwives, Primary Care Physician Assistants
Mental health providers - Clinical or Counseling Psychologists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Psychiatric Nurse Specialists, Mental Health Counselors, Licensed Professional Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists
and
Dental providers - dentists and dental hygienists.
The State will continue to approve designated practice sites, and will share responsibility to monitor the sites with AHEC.
The funds for this year must be allocated to eligible providers by June 30, 2010. If you are interested in applying or for more information, please contact Lisa Benzel, Director of the South Central MT AHEC: lisa@mtha.org |
|
Med Start Summer Camp |
|
 The South Central Montana AHEC, in conjunction with state-wide AHECs, is coordinating a FREE one-week summer camp for thirty high school students entering their Junior or Senior year in the fall of 2010.
The camp will be from July 18th - 25th and will take place on the MSU campus in Bozeman. Activities will include job shadowing at local healthcare facilities, health science symposiums such as tours of the cadaver lab, prosthetics lab, and surgery center, as well as financial aid guidance for college and guest speakers on many healthcare related topics! Many social events will take place as well!
Application materials will be sent to High School Counselors across the state by mid-March and will also be available on the SC MT AHEC website: www.scmtahec.org.
For more information, please contact Bergen Morehouse, South Central Montana AHEC, Program Coordinator (406-683-2790 or bergen@mtha.org.) |
| Eastern MT AHEC Update - Billings
|
|
Faculty Development |
The Eastern Montana AHEC office would like to invite preceptors throughout the state to a Faculty Development Training Session on Saturday, April 17, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m., at the Mansfield Health Education Center in Billings. Sponsored by the Eastern Montana AHEC office, the training is free, and participants are eligible for four CME credits. Video-conferencing is available upon request for those that may not be able to attend in person. The training will be provided by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and the guest lecturer is Dr. Alison Dobbie, Distinguished Teaching Professor and the Perry E. Gross Distinguished Chair, at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Topics for the training will include the following: Principles of Effective Feedback, Teaching Patient Presentation Skills, Assessing Learners and Tips for Improving Your Clinic Teaching.
To RSVP, to request video-conferencing, or for further information, contact Suzie Thomas at suzie.tho@riverstonehealth.org or 406.247.3285. |
| North Central MT AHEC Update - Cut Bank
|
|
North Central Office Opens in Cut Bank
|
A new regional AHEC office for the North Central region opened in January in Cut Bank, with Cherie Taylor hired as its Director. Previously, Cherie was the Chief Executive Officer of Northern Rockies Medical Center in Cut Bank and had been in healthcare for 10 years as a Patient Accounts Services Director, Chief Financial Officer, and finally Chief Executive Officer. Cherie enjoys providing valuable resources to healthcare field.
The new regional office has been busy since the beginning of the year forming its advisory council, informing organizations and individuals of the resources available through the AHEC, and developing a work plan for the year. Recently, the Director started assisting the South Central office with recruitment and the Western office with bringing Hands on Health to North Central communities. The office has had the privilege of working with five healthcare facilities, with detailed community assessments completed by the Office of Rural Health, to put together a regional snapshot of healthcare needs.
A real focus over the next 6 months will be on recruitment, working with all groups/organizations (CAH, IHS, Tribal, PPS, K-12 Schools, and Post-Secondary Schools) to address healthcare workforce issues, increasing HOSA Chapters in the region, and rolling out as many pipeline programs like R.E.A.C.H and Hands On Health as possible.
For more information, please contact Cherie Taylor, Director of the North Central MT AHEC: cherie@mtha.org |
| Western MT AHEC Update - Missoula
|
|
Hands on Health is Traveling |
 Hands on Health, the interactive exhibition about health and health professions, designed by Western Montana AHEC and spectrUM Discovery Area, will travel to six locations across the state between March and June.
Since opening in mid-September, Hands on Health has given almost 4000 Missoula-area students the opportunity to participate in a simulated surgery, create slides to view with a microscope, assemble a giant x-ray body, learn about nutrition and exercise science, observe dissections, try out health assessment tools like a pulse oxymeter and stethoscope, and interact with healthcare professionals and learn about their work.
The exhibition, which travels with two educators, will be set up in a variety of locations including a school gym, a senior center, and a local historical museum to give thousands of rural students and their families the opportunity to get excited about science and health professions during class field trips and Family Science Nights.
Community organizations (including the school or school district, sometimes using Title 1 Funds; PTA; healthcare facility; community organizations; and private donors) typically partner together to raise the funds to bring Hands on Health to their town. A generous grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana has made it possible to defray the cost of transportation of the exhibition, and Family Science Nights are also being provided without additional charge.
Six communities so far have contracted Hands on Health to visit between March and June.
Thompson Falls - March 25 and 26
 Anaconda - April 24 Fort Belknap - April 29 and 30
Shelby - May 3
Sidney - May 5 and 6
Kalispell - May 17 and 18
To learn more about the exhibition and bringing it to your community -- or to support a community visit already being planned -- please contact Grace Decker, Western Montana AHEC (406-243-4746 or grace.decker@mso.umt.edu |
|
Health Science Teacher Training to be offered again in Missoula, June 2010 |
In summer of 2009, twenty science and health enhancement teachers from across the state traveled to Missoula to attend a week-long teacher workshop in Health Science. The workshop, held at the UM-Missoula College of Technology, was the first in Montana to utilize a new pathway to obtaining a Career and Technical Education (CTE) license in Health Occupations -- formerly only available to a licensed health professional with 10,000 hours in the field who also obtained a teaching credential. As a result,
only 9 licensed Health Occupations teachers were working in Montana.
Following the training, the teachers were required to complete 40 hours of job shadowing, in order to both get a first-hand experience in the clinical setting and also to build relationships that the teacher could draw in implementing a health careers class and a HOSA chapter at their schools.
The workshop will again be offered to current teachers of science or health enhancement. Graduate credit will be available for the course this year and a "master class" for already-certified Health Occupations teachers will be included. Western Montana AHEC will again provide logistical support to participants and the AHECs statewide will assist if needed in finding job shadowing placements for teachers.
This workshop has already more than doubled the number of licensed Health Occupations teachers in the state, a critical piece of building a "pipeline" to health careers for Montana's students.
For more information about the workshop, contact Renee Harris, Office of Public Instruction ( RHarris3@mt.gov or 406-994-6986). | |
|
AHEC - The Basics |
The Montana AHEC mission is to improve the supply and distribution of healthcare professionals, with an emphasis on primary care, through community/academic educational partnerships, in order to increase access to quality healthcare. We work to connect students to healthcare careers, professionals to communities, and communities to better health. To fulfill our mission, we focus on these key areas:1) Programs and resources for K-12 students and teachers to generate interest in healthcare professions
2) Placement and support of health profession students in rural rotations throughout the state
3) Recruitment and retention of qualified healthcare professionals to Montana
4) Continuing Education programs for practicing healthcare professionals
Montana has 4 regional AHEC offices - Eastern, located in Billings- South Central, located in Dillon - Western, located in Missoula - and the North Central, located in Cut Bank.
For more information, please visit:
|
Please contact us with your comments, ideas, questions or projects you'd like to see highlighted in future issues of this e-newsletter.
Thank you for the work you do every day to improve the healthcare industry and the health of all Montanans!!
|
|
|
