A July episode of the Rural Health Leadership Radio podcast featured longtime NCRHP colleague Abby Radcliffe.

As a 2023 National Rural Health Association Fellows, Radcliffe co-authored a policy paper dealing with rural health care workforce shortages, which was the main topic of the interview.

“Workforce is the key phrase I hear when I visit all the rural hospitals in Illinois,” said Abby, “and it will continue to be in the future.”

AHEC has been very important to educating students for health care careers and getting them prepared for that, Radcliffe observed, stressing the role of pipeline programs. “We know a lot of students, when they’re in high school, have already started to consider what careers they want.”

Abby was joined by her fellow NRHA Fellow and co-author Michelle Fortune, president of Surgery and GI Service Line for Mercy Health in St Louis. Michelle concurred about the importance of pipeline programs, pointing out that it was a CNA course that she took in high school that put her on the path to a three-decade nursing career.

Abby Radcliffe currently serves as the Senior Director of the Small and Rural Hospital Constituency Section at the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, where she has worked with rural hospitals for 17 years. She recently the Rural Health Hero Award from the National Center for Rural Health Professions.

What really excites her about the future of rural health care, she said, is “the students coming up.” She is very privileged, she said, that as a member of he recruitment committee of the UIC  Rural Medical Education program (RMED) she gets to sit in on interviews of students who want to go into the rural program. “These are amazing students out there.”

Throughout the 32-minute episode, Radcliffe and Fortune shared short- and long-term strategies in handling workforce shortages, as well as pragmatic and policy-based recommendations. The episode wrapped up the podcast’s recent series focusing on the policy papers produced by NRHA’s 2023 Fellows.

Listen to the entire episode