Governor Janet T. Mills, (D), Addressed the Annual Governor’s ‘Conference on Tourism at The Westin Harborview Hotel, POrtland, Earlier This Year.
Governor Janet T. Mills (D) the first woman governor of Maine and its first woman AG, announced yesterday that she is providing up to $1.6 million through her Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan to expand opportunities for training health care professionals and medical providers in rural communities, further strengthening Maine’s health care workforce.
DHHS is accepting applications for the grant program through October 11, 2022 from health care organizations that host students and preceptors. The number and size of awards will depend on the number of proposals received and available funds. To view the Request for Applications and for more information, visit the Maine Division of Procurement Services website.
The initiative offers funding to support the expansion or development of new medical residency programs in underserved areas for new physicians. It will also support clinical training opportunties for students enrolled in an accredied health care profession educational or training program, including but not limited to nursing (RN, LPN, APRA, Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA’s) behavorial health, (LCSW, LADC) professionals, pharmaaaacists, physical therapists, physicians, physician assistants, emergency medical services (AEMT, Paramedic), and denistry. The funding inventivizes the expansion of clinical sites by providing direct funding to pay qualified clinical supervisors and by providing other supports such as housing for students while they complee their clinical rotations. The Program awards grants of up to $65,000. for proposals to attract and support clinical supervisors, known as preceptors, in rural practices and up to $950,000 to support Maine new or expanded graduate medical education programs. This helps fill an important gap.a Maine ranks among the lowest state in terms of graduate medical education opporunities.
“While the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on Maine’s health care workforce, the state has long been challenged to recruit and train needed clinical staff,” said Jeffrey Barkin, MD., President of the Maine Medical Association. “Maine has unique challenges to safely meet its diverse and complex health care needs, including is oldest in the national population and large rural areas. The Governor’s plan goes a log way toward building a robust health cae workforce with the right clinical training and experience in order to maintiain both access to and quality of health cae for all Mainers.”
“Ensuring that every person in Maine can access high-quality health care, nomatter where they live in our state, is critical to their wellbeing and to our economy as a while,” said Governr Mills in the announcement. “By training more health care professionals in rural parts of our state, this initiative will strengthen our health care workforce and support families who need health care close to home.”