The mission of the Collaborative for Rural Primary care, Research, Education, and Practice (Rural PREP) is to improve and sustain rural health through community engagement and research in rural primary care health professions education.
Educators and researchers have sought for decades to understand how to attract more primary care providers to rural areas and prepare them better for rural practice. Research has demonstrated that where clinicians are educated is an important factor in future rural practice. Rural PREP is expanding the evidence base for how rural health professions education works, and more expansion is clearly needed.
A growing community of practice of rural health professions educators, researchers, students and rural community stakeholders is working to develop evidence-based practices for equipping primary care professionals for rural health care.Our work together has been honed through a series of shared research projects in the HRSA*-funded Rural Training Track (RTT) Technical Assistance Program 2010-2016,and the ongoing work of the University of Washington’s WWAMI Rural Health Research Center and The RTT Collaborative, a non-profit cooperative of individuals and organizations committed to rural health professions education across the U.S.. The RTT Collaborative is anchored at Ohio University.
Rural PREP is one of HRSA’s Academic Units for Primary Care Training and Enhancement (AU-PCTE). Read more about Academic Units here.
*U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration
Leadership
Davis Patterson, PhD
Project Director
Randall Longenecker, MD
Associate Director, Communities of Practice Lead
