The University of New England has received a five-year, $2.5 million federal grant aimed at improving rural health care in Maine.
UNE Vice President for Clinical Affairs Dr. Dora Anne Mills was the grant’s chief author. She says, over the course of the grant, more than 250 UNE health profession students from several different disciplines will train together at Penobscot Community Health Care, learning the skills needed for interprofessional, team-based care.
“Medical students, for instance, physicians’ assistants, pharmacy students, and we hope also to add dental and social work students,” she says.
Mills says the aim of the project is to transform the primary care workforce in rural and underserved parts of Maine and to improve health outcomes. She says that, in addition to the extended training experiences later in their UNE programs, medical, dental and pharmacy students are also given one-week rural immersion experiences during their first year.
“You need to provide some opportunities for them to have training throughout their educational years in that area and then they become excited about practicing in the rural area and then they return to that after they finish their full education,” Mills says.
The grant also will allow UNE faculty to train 30 PCHC clinicians on-site so they will be able to teach students after the grant ends.
With nearly 70,000 patients, Penobscot Community Health Care is Maine’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center. PCHC provides care, regardless of personal circumstances, at sites throughout the Bangor region, in Winterport, Belfast and in Jackman.
