The University of North Carolina System has awarded nearly $6.5 million dollars to expand healthcare workforce training programs in rural parts of the state, including the High Country.
The General Assembly established the Rural Residency Medical Education and Training Fund three years ago to train more healthcare providers and connect them to communities in need. Appalachian State University’s Beaver College of Health Sciences received four grants to support programs including social work, nursing and behavioral health.
And the Mountain Area Health Education Center will apply its new funding toward pharmacist residency training, expanding its statewide rural fellowship and its family medicine program in the Boone area.
CEO Dr. William Hathaway says caring for complex patients with special needs and intellectual disabilities requires expertise.
"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," says Hathaway.
He says that the grant will impact patients directly by offering services where they don’t currently exist.