From the NHSC October 2006 Ambassador ALERT.
Susan Alford, Southwest Virginia AHEC: Ambassador Susan Alford recently staffed a Virginia SEARCH display at a conference in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Called "Head for the Hills," it is a retreat for residents and faculty in primary care. It took place October 5-7 at Breaks Interstate Park. One hundred eighty seven people attended, including 110 workshop participants, 38 spouses, and 39 children. Among the participants were 40 residents, 39 clinical faculty or local preceptors, and 9 nurse practitioners. Ambassador Alford had the opportunity to discuss the rewards and challenges of rural practice with several of the residents and advised a few to speak with the representative from Primary Practice Opportunities of Virginia (PPOVA) for information about current vacancies. She distributed more than 200 NHSC pens and notepads in addition to flyers and brochures. Way to go Susan! Keep up the good work.
Media coverage of the Virginia Search program during 2006 has included:
News article in the June 7 issue of The Caroline Progress
News article in the June 8 issue of the Rappahannock Record
(See page 11 of this pdf file)
News article in the June 14 issue of the Tidewater Review
Lancaster County in Virginia's Northern Neck is named one of the best places to live and Virginia SEARCH has clinical rotation opportunities in this county. For more information see here.
Read an article in Community Health Forum on AHECs by clicking here.
2006 Linkages Awards
The Virginia Recruitment and Retention Collaborative Team, has been selected as the winner of the 2006 Linkages Awards. The Linkage Awards are presented annually by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice to recognize exemplary community based collaborative activities between public health practice agencies and academic institutions of higher learning. This year the Council placed a special emphasis on highlighting collaborative efforts to strengthen recruitment and retention efforts.
The honor includes $1000 in prize money, a commemorative plaque, and the opportunity to display the project as a poster at either the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Conference or the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Conference.
The Virginia Recruitment and Retention Collaborative Team consists of representatives from:
- Virginia Department of Health
- Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
- University of Virginia School of Medicine
- Eastern Virginia Medical School
- Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Virginia Primary Care Association
- Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium
- Carillon Family Medicine Residency
- Virginia Statewide Area Health Education Center Program
- Virginia SEARCH
- Virginia Health Care Foundation
- Virginia Rural Health Resource Center