Description
From a Graduate Clinical Placement stand-point, rural placements are essential to providing our nursing students a well-rounded, diversified education. On average, it takes 1-3 years to recruit a primary care physician for rural Colorado. The number of students interested in rural practice far outweighs the number of preceptors available in rural clinical rotations. We use a computer program called Typhon. This software has been at the college for years, but under utilized and inconsistent with the rural placement option. By determining if a site is considered rural (determined by AHEC), and marking the "rural" box, we can adequately and efficiently run reports and place students at rural sites.
How does this impact the University?
CU Strategic Priority #5: to enhance diversity, university wide and to foster a culture of inclusion.
This will impact the University, as it will re-build those lost rural connections, and essentially have our students in rural locations promoting CU. With the health shortage in Colorado, specifically the rural and underserved, by having our students in these areas, will bring excellent health care, and provide the necessary health care assistance needed in these areas. This will possibly impact the healthcare workforce by supplying more CU Graduates to these areas once licensed and wanting to go back to where there were mentored.
Implementation Status
We have already begun to determine rural requirements, and updating the software. We have been able to run reports as to which is considered rural sites, and use them for grants and research. We plan to use this list, to reach out to those rural sites, where we have not placed a student recently, and re-establish those connections.
Submitter's Information
Submitter's Name: Allison Boyrer
Submitter's Email: allison.boyrer@ucdenver.edu
Additional Team Members: Deana Alfonso