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The ads emphasize UNMC’s importance in addressing professional workforce shortage needs in two areas: nursing and behavioral health.
“The need for more health care providers across Nebraska is increasing, and these two areas — nursing and behavioral health — are examples of where that need is most acute,” said Virginia Tilden, D.N.Sc., dean of the College of Nursing. “Without adequate resources, these needs will become even more critical, and the collective health of Nebraskans will suffer.”
Jan Zierke, nursing home administrator for Heritage of Bel Air in Norfolk, is featured in one of the advertisements. Zierke noted that she and others in the Norfolk area have needed four to six months to fill some nursing positions.
“We ourselves needed a night nurse and had that position open for five months before that was filled,” Zierke said. “Fortunately, we had other people who could fill in the position, but we’re still not getting the applicants.”
The nursing applicant pool would increase, Zierke said, should a planned College of Nursing facility in Norfolk come to fruition.
“The UNMC College of Nursing northern division would help us tremendously in northeast Nebraska,” Zierke said.
Today, Nebraska’s nursing workforce shortage is 9 percent. With no additional resources, that number is expected to increase to 20 percent — or 3,800 registered nurses — by the year 2020.
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A native of Hooper in Dodge County, Dr. Turner said she made trips to an allergist in Omaha a couple times per year as a child. Those trips, she said, meant a full day away from school for her and significant time away from work for her mother.
“That’s not practical for rural families seeking behavioral health treatment,” Dr. Turner said. “Typically, even though we only see a family between six and ten times, we need to have those meetings weekly or at least every other week.
“It’s essential that we’re in the rural communities, so that we’re more accessible to families in those areas.”
Currently, 90 of 93 Nebraska counties are experiencing a shortage of behavioral health practitioners. Among UNMC’s outreach efforts is the establishment of 15 integrated behavioral outreach clinics in rural Nebraska. Those clinics have served patients from more than 225 communities and towns in rural Nebraska over the past 10 years.
All of the outreach clinics in Nebraska are staffed by MMI-trained personnel, the majority of these people have moved to — and currently practice in — rural areas.
“Our main goal is to expand the integration of behavioral health professionals into primary care settings and to get behavioral health specialists placed into every town with a population of 12,000 or more for pediatrics and 5,000 or more for family medicine,” said Joe Evans, Ph.D., director of the MMI Department of Psychology and a pediatrics professor. “We’ve got a long way to go. In the past year, however, we conducted more than 7,000 patient visits in our rural clinics, which gives you an idea of the demand for services.”