The Upper Cumberland Local Workforce Development Board will use a new state rural health grant to start a healthcare apprenticeship program
Assistant Director Jeremiah Miller said the program will work with local EMS directors, hospitals, and various other healthcare organizations.
“Ultimately, our goal over the next year and a half is to provide funding for 90 apprentices across the Upper Cumberland,” Miller said. “And that’s our hope to work with every county to provide some type of apprenticeship funding to that county.”
Miller said part of the board’s job is to reach out to healthcare providers to see how they can help remove barriers. Miller said a common barrier that healthcare providers are facing in the Upper Cumberland is finding workers for entry-level positions.
“We found that especially in hospitals and in assisted living programs that those entry-level positions are difficult to fill,” Miller said. “And so we plan on using this funding as a way to support some of those entry-level positions so CNAs, those medical assistants positions with the hope that ultimately people that get those entry-level positions will continue their education and move up and get the lets say LPNs and RNs licenses or various other licenses that may be available to them.”
Miller said we are in a baby boom generation, which has increased the older population. Miller said having an older population in rural areas in the Upper Cumberland can be problematic.
“The Upper Cumberland is a place for retirement and so therefore, with those increases, we are gonna need more healthcare providers for our communities,” Miller said. “And so, like I said earlier, we are really glad that we are getting this opportunity to boost healthcare in our community.”
Executive Director Becky Hull said the board met with EMS services from each county in the Upper Cumberland to see what barriers are preventing them from providing better healthcare. Hull said that after the conversations, the board learned that some counties in the Upper Cumberland do not have a dental hygienist. Hull said they are currently looking to partner with organizations to try and bring dental care to those counties.
Grants are part of the Rural Healthcare Initiatives Program from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
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