During the past 10 years, the UNMC Division of Medical Technology has educated 96 students at several clinical education sites in rural Nebraska, and 98 percent of those students have stayed to work in rural hospitals.
Now, thanks to a federal grant, UNMC will expand that distance-education model to sites in Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming, as the need for medical technologists and other health-care personnel grows significantly.
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Linda Fell, associate program director for the Division of Medical Technology, is principal investigator for the three-year, $350,000 grant, which was issued through the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administrations (HRSA).
“This grant will provide us the opportunity to reach these students where they are living, and where there are critical shortages of health-care personnel,” Fell said. “In turn, almost all of them will remain in those areas to practice.
“We’ve been able to show the granting agency that we have had good outcomes through Medical Technology’s Rural Health Education Program. Now, we’ll take that model to other sites, and we’ll expand it to include other health-care areas.”
With the grant money, Fell said, UNMC will partner with six hospitals — including three in Nebraska and one each in Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming — to deliver clinical education to students in medical technology, cytotechnology, radiography and radiation therapy.
The hospitals, and the clinical education that will be delivered there, include:
- Regional West Medical Center, Scottsbluff, Neb., radiation therapy;
- Faith Regional Medical Center, Norfolk, Neb., medical technology;
- Avera McKennan Hospital, Sioux Falls, S.D., medical technology and cytotechnology;
- University of Iowa Medical Center, Iowa City, Iowa, cytotechnology;
- St. Joseph’s Hospital, Omaha, Neb., medical technology, cytotechnology, radiography and radiation therapy; and
- Wyoming Medical Center/Medical Testing Lab, Casper, Wyo., medical technology and cytotechnology.
In medical technology, students in the programs will take 11 weeks of distance-learning coursework via satellite from the UNMC Omaha campus, Fell said. They then will continue their education for nine months under clinical educators at the respective hospitals. During this time, UNMC continues to provide exams and exercises, as well as program oversight.
“We’re very fortunate to have the support of these hospitals and all of their employees,” Fell said. “The students get a large component of one-on-one teaching, in a clinical lab setting. When they graduate, they’re ready to go to work. Almost always, they stay to find work in the areas where they had their clinical education.”
Fell said that UNMC’s medical technology program will continue to offer its distance-learning opportunities with hospitals in North Platte, Kearney, Grand Island and Hastings. Each year, eight students are accepted into the program, with two students receiving their clinical education at each hospital. The program is needed, Fell said, because of a shortage of medical technologists and other health-care professionals in rural areas. In medical technology alone, there were 5,000 fewer graduates last year nationally than available positions.
“Those kinds of numbers, along with the statistics that show health-care professionals practice where they are educated, show that our distance-education opportunities are essential for health care to survive in these areas,” Fell said. “We look forward to expanding our efforts in these other areas.”