In 1988, Senators Quentin N. Burdick of North Dakota and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii co-wrote and sponsored legislation to fund a rural health interdisciplinary training program to improve access to health care in America's rural communities. The Hawaii QB Program was highly successful in recruiting health professionals to areas where they are most needed. And the need in Hawai‘i is great, with all five neighbor islands federally designated as medically underserved and health personnel shortage areas.
From 2000-2006, the program was funded by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (grant #D36HP16002). Beginning in 2006 the program was funded by the Hawaii State Legislature. All funding ended for the program on September 30, 2009.
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| How did it work and who benefited? |
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University of Hawai‘i students participated in three seminars during the spring semester to prepare them to work as interdisciplinary teams at neighbor island sites during a six-week summer practicum. This provided them with the opportunity to live and work in a rural community. There were six practicum sites and each was located in one of the rural counties of Hawai‘i, Maui or Kaua‘i. This rural practicum experience encouraged students to consider working in a rural community while providing them with valuable contacts that often resulted in job opportunities.
During their practicum, students were mentored by health professionals and made contributions to the community’s health with projects that built on the community’s strengths and assets and were designed to provide culturally and place-appropriate health promotion and disease prevention for vulnerable rural residents. Practicum projects were extremely varied and focused on all age groups and on such critical issues as diabetes, cancer, health care access, drug abuse prevention, self-esteem, smoking cessation, physical fitness, nutrition, and obesity. These health promotion and disease prevention projects have far-reaching outcomes that benefit the community’s health by reducing the need for more costly care down the road. Many of these projects are being continued by dedicated community volunteers and sponsors.
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University of Hawai‘i students from a number of disciplines participated including nursing, medicine, social work, public health, psychology, medical technology, nutrition, dental hygiene, education, pharmacy, speech/audiology and speech communication. In addition, each year six rural high school students were invited to participate with the interdisciplinary teams during the practicum, providing them with a hands-on opportunity to learn more about health professions careers.
The program succeeded because of the committed co-sponsorship of many, including the University of Hawaii School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, rural neighbor island community centers and health centers, Native Hawaiian organizations, Area Health Education Centers, public and non-profit community agencies, and key community leaders. Our community advisory board was comprised of University of Hawaii faculty and health care professionals from agencies across the state. |
