Building the Healthcare Workforce

Now more than ever, it’s critical that we work together to develop and strengthen the healthcare workforce for Minnesota and beyond. Together, we can turn the challenge of a growing shortage of health professionals into an opportunity to think creatively about sustaining a workforce to meet the health needs of Minnesotans.

Here are just a few of the ways we are expanding our reach through recruitment, training and retention-building:

• The Pre-Health M Simulation Bridge Initiative, a unique collaboration between the Pre-Health Student Resource Center and M Simulation, creates a pipeline for community college students to learn about different healthcare fields and how to apply to programs at the University.
• We continue to work to expand training and placement opportunities in small towns and rural communities. For example, the School of Nursing is working to ensure students in the psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner program are prepared for rural practice, which includes a requirement to complete a 40-hour clinical experience in a rural community. College of Pharmacy students have a required placement in a rural or medically underserved urban area that includes a specific assignment related to patient care, social determinants of health, community resources, and advancing intercultural understanding. Additionally, a new rural program in Wilmar trains physicians and encourages them to stay and practice in that community.
• The Bridge to Residency for Immigrant International Doctor Graduates (BRIIDGE) program, a nine-month program that aims to help international medical graduates develop the skills necessary to become successful residents in the United States medical system, enables us to tap into existing expertise from around the world.
• Our community offers an enormous resource to our learners. The WILD (Workplace Interprofessional Learning & Development) series is an innovative continuing education offering where participants build interprofessional skills in areas like communication, roles and responsibilities, teams and teamwork, and values and ethics. The initial pilot year has recently finished and the curriculum is being prepared for national dissemination.

We are always looking for new and creative solutions to workforce issues. We’d love to hear from you about any workforce development initiatives you’re a part of.