AHEC's 50th Anniversary

Dec. 10, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AHEC celebrates 50 years of strengthening the nation’s healthcare workforce

An organization that has trained nearly 2 million healthcare professionals during the last five years and has been integral in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic is commemorating a half century of service.

Throughout 2021, the National AHEC Organization (NA0) has celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the legislation that created Area Health Education Centers.

“For decades, we have been paving the way for young people on their journeys to healthcare careers,” said Aileen Harris, president of the NAO and center director for the Capital AHEC in Virginia. “That is helping to shape our healthcare system in a way that makes it more responsive to our most vulnerable populations. The impact of that work is in many ways immeasurable.”

AHECs are indeed an important part of the nation’s health workforce development infrastructure. The program originated in response to a 1970 report by the Carnegie Foundation that expressed concern with U.S. healthcare availability and delivery.

The need to strengthen the healthcare workforce, particularly for the underserved, continues. According to new Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. could see a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034, and the American Hospital Association says more than 200,000 new registered nurses are needed each year to meet increasing health care needs and to replace nurses entering retirement.

Through academic and community partnerships, AHECs develop and train a diverse healthcare workforce prepared to deliver culturally appropriate, high-quality, team-based care, with an emphasis on primary care for rural and underserved populations.

Programming and reach

The nation’s 300 AHECs are in nearly every state and in multiple U.S. territories. Administered by the Health Resource Services Administration (HRSA), AHECs are federally funded, and many are also supported by state governments, foundations, or other partners.

AHECs are well known for engaging future health professions in programming such as health career camps, shadowing experiences, academic enrichment, and networking opportunities. Once students enter their program of study, many AHECs facilitate rural student clinical rotations.

Molly Harp, D.O., a family medicine physician for Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph, MO, first encountered AHEC as a 16-year-old when the Northwest Missouri AHEC arranged a job shadowing experience for her.

“I could write a very long book about the role AHEC has served in my life’s education and career path,” Dr. Harp said. “From internships and shadowing in high school, to college prep, leadership roles as a college student, advocating in the capital for the program, clinical rotations in medical school, and serving on the NW MO AHEC board as an attending, AHEC has been with me at every chapter and continues to enrich my professional life to this day.”

In its latest budget justification, HRSA noted that in a recent five-year period, the nation’s AHECs trained more than 1.8 million individuals. Forty-two percent of those completing programs were from a rural background, 40 percent were from disadvantaged backgrounds, and 29 percent were underrepresented minorities.

AHEC Scholars

The implementation of the AHEC Scholars program in 2018 has added another dimension to the way in which AHECs strengthen the healthcare workforce.

The program targets health professions students from multiple disciplines who are already enrolled in either a health professions degree program or an allied health workforce degree/certificate program. It provides supplemental education to health professions students that focuses on key topics such as cultural competency, behavioral health, and emerging health issues.

In the academic year 2020-2021, AHECs supported more than 7,000 AHEC Scholars, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“AHECs serve as that connection to introduce all the possibilities and offer the support to excel throughout the process,” said Tracy Causey, CEO of the Capital Area Health Network in Richmond, VA.

Causey also noted the important work AHECs do in creating a more diverse workforce. “Increasing the number of black and brown healthcare professionals increases the trust and quality of care for patients across the board,” he said.

Pandemic response

Gaps the pandemic has exposed in the healthcare system further reveal the value of the AHEC.

Pharmacy resident Brian Tran was in the Southwest Georgia AHEC Scholars program, which allowed him to be a part of outreach clinics for farmers and to get certifications in telehealth and Mental Health First Aid.

“Both certifications shined during the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Tran said, “as healthcare organizations started to utilize telehealth and as social distancing and isolation created concern for mental health.”

AHECs, designed to be responsive to their community’s particular healthcare needs, addressed to the pandemic in multiple ways, from Covid-19 testing to contact tracing. This AHEC Pandemic Response Summary details some of those interventions.

For more information about AHEC, visit nationalahec.org, or watch this NAO 50^th anniversary video.