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Training and updating the skills of rural hospital
workers can be a challenge when the nearest training facility
is more than an hour a way.
Recognizing this problem officials from the Oklahoma CareerTech
system partnered with the State Department of Health and the
Office of Rural Health to create the Oklahoma Rural Health Project.
"Without local healthcare, rural towns can fall off the
map," according to Val Schott, Director of the Office or
Rural Health. "Retirees and the elderly can't stay, and
young families won't move there. Our idea is to provide training
that rural critical access hospitals workers need but can't get
locally. We want to provide as much training as close to home
as possible. Oklahoma's CareerTech system is a logical choice
for our partner."
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That is why the Office of Rural Health
is being recognized as a CareerTech Business Champion.
 A Business
Champion is an Oklahoma business or industry that attributes
much of its economic success to the partnerships it has formed
with the local technology center or high school CareerTech
program.
Project Coordinator Debbie Shumaker said the Office of Rural
Health secured federal funding to provide training for health
care workers at critical access hospitals in rural parts of the
state. (Critical access hospitals offer reduced fees for Medicaid
patients).
The State Department of Health has previously partnered with
the CareerTech system to provide EMT and Paramedic training,
she said.
"We also have technology centers in all parts of the state,"
she said, "and we are good at customizing training for the
needs of an industry."
The project is being implemented through three of Oklahoma's
29 technology center districts. They are Canadian Valley Technology
Center, El Reno, Kiamichi Technology Center, Atoka, and High
Plains Technology Center, Woodward.
Canadian Valley is training workers at Park View Hospital in
El Reno, Kingfisher Regional Hospital and Watonga Memorial Hospital;
Kiamichi Technology Center is training workers at Atoka Memorial
Hospital and Mary Hurley Health Center in Coalgate; and High
Plains Technology Center is training workers at Woodward Regional
Hospital, Harper County Hospital in Buffalo, and Cimarron Memorial
Hospital in Boise City.
Shumaker said health care workers at rural hospitals face scheduling
problems when they have to go for retraining.
"When workers need to update their
skills they may be away from the hospital for several days traveling
to and from a metropolitan area," she said. "One employee
taking about three days off can cause major problems for a hospital
with a small staff."
 The Rural Health
Project allows health care workers to receive training in their
local communities through the CareerTech system's network
of technology centers.
Courses offered through the project include Advanced Cardiac
Life Support, Stress Management, Wound Care, Medicare Compliance,
Intro to Computers, Windows and Internet, Microsoft Word and
Excel.
The computer classes are targeted towards hospital workers who
are not familiar with interfacing with a computer. Shumaker said
the medical field is gradually moving health care workers from
charts and notepads to using laptops and keyboards.
"Eventually most health care professionals will be imputing
information through a computer," she said.
Some classes will be taught at local technology centers while
others will be taught at the hospitals. Many of the classes have
been customized to fit the needs of a particular medical center,
Shumaker said.
"The classes will combine distance learning technologies,
such as streaming video and video conferencing, with clinical
and laboratory work," Shumaker said.
Training through the Rural Health Project began in November 2001
and will continue through May.
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