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Rural Health Leadership Radio™

Over the last ten years, over 100 rural hospitals have closed their doors. Roughly one in three rural hospitals have been identified as “at risk.” If there was ever a need for strong leadership, that time is now. RHLR’s mission is to provide a forum to have conversations with rural health leaders to discuss and share ideas about what is working, what is not working, lessons learned, success stories, strategies, things to avoid and anything else you want to talk and hear about. RHLR provides a voice for rural health. The only investment is your time, and our goal is to make sure you receive a huge return on your investment. For more information, visit www.rhlradio.com or e-mail bill@billauxier.com.
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Now displaying: June, 2019
Jun 25, 2019

We’re talking about empowering rural communities to address impactful health disparities with Dr. Fran Feltner, Director of the University Of Kentucky Center Of Excellence in Rural Health.

“Within these beautiful mountains there’s a lot of poverty and people who need our help and need improved access to care.”

~ Dr. Fran Feltner

Dr. Feltner was born and raised in rural Kentucky, having served rural health care in numerous different ways. She has held positions ranging from office nurse, to delivering babies, to caring for elderly patients, and has enjoyed every moment of being a nurse in rural health care. Dr. Feltner became the Clinical Director of the HRSA program, which would eventually lead to her role as the Director of Lay Health Worker Division, at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Feltner would later become the Director of the Kentucky Homeplace Program, with the main goal of increasing access to care and reducing health disparities in rural Kentucky.

“Take care of yourself first so that you can take care of other people.”

~ Dr. Fran Feltner

Dr. Feltner would then become the CEO or Director of the Center of Excellence in Rural Health. The main goal for Dr. Feltner and her team is to work across rural Kentucky with assisting people in their communities to solve problems. Dr. Feltner researches links between vulnerable communities and their health care system, social determinants of health and their effects on health outcomes, as well as the role and impact of community health workers. She thoroughly enjoys both the research and community engagement that comes with her work, and how she and her team really become a part of the community that they serve.

Jun 11, 2019

We’re talking about obstetric care in rural health with Dr. Valerie Taglione, resident physician at UP Health Systems – Marquette.

“I think it’s important for us physicians to lead patients by teaching them how to improve their health and then make a decision together…”

~Dr. Valerie Taglione

Dr. Taglione grew up in Portland, Michigan where she was inspired by her sister’s trips to medical schools to focus her career in medicine, and eventually began shadowing in rural emergency rooms. She attended Michigan Technological University, where she earned her degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences. Right after college, she went on to attend medical school at Michigan State University, in the College of Human Medicine. Dr. Taglione completed her clinical training in the Marquette, Michigan, receiving education in rural medicine and completing her training in the rural physician’s program.

“…there’s a new spark for passion in rural health that I think is really promising.”

~Dr. Valerie Taglione

Dr. Taglione helped conduct a study on obstetric care in rural health, looking at the access to maternity care in rural Michigan. She looked specifically at prenatal care, labor and delivery services, and specialized obstetric throughout the Upper Peninsula, the Northern Lower Peninsula, and some counties in the Southern Lower Peninsula. The study mapped out counties in these areas and looked to identify gaps of coverage in obstetric care.

Jun 4, 2019

We’re talking about how we can provide support for caregivers with Dr. Carrie Henning Smith, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the Rural Health Research Center at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health.

“…caregiving in a rural context is different than in an urban context.”

~Dr. Carrie Henning Smith

Dr. Smith grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, with deep roots across the Midwest, in Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. Farming has been in her family for years, making rural health near to her heart. She embraces the broad lens that public health has on issues, including healthcare, climate change, poverty, as well as demography and context. Dr. Smith has studied long-term care in Rural America, focusing on unpaid caregivers. Unpaid caregivers make up the bulk of the long-term care system, and Dr. Smith noticed that there was little research being done on what it is truly like to be an unpaid caregiver in a rural setting.

“I think the more we can elevate the conversation from a personal or family crisis to a larger conversation that we are all a part of, I think the better off we will all be.”

~Dr. Carrie Henning Smith

Dr. Smith delved into the differences between the rural and urban caregiving experience, as well as the unique rural challenges and opportunities for supporting caregivers. She finds that rural caregiving programs, policies, and other programs need to be designed with rural communities in mind, given the differences in rural and urban caregiving. With more constraints than urban areas, rural healthcare faces issues that require more teamwork and more open conversations in order to be conquered.

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