Central Appalachia residents present unique healthcare challenges. This vulnerable population faces poor health status and low access to health care. 'The Health Wagon' was established to innovatively enhance access to health care for the poor and marginalized rural population of Central Appalachia. This article describes the operations of the Health Wagon, a full mobile medical clinic, in delivering free health care to those in rural Southwest Virginia in Central Appalachia. The Health Wagon provides a wide range of comprehensive healthcare services, such as acute and chronic disease management, laboratory and diagnostic services, medication assistance, dental and eye care and specialty clinics for marginalized, poor and disenfranchised patients living in the mountains of that region. In 2009, a total of 157 clinics were provided and 2900 patients were seen (3165 patient encounters) in addition to 268 telemedicine specialty consultations at no cost to the patients. The work of the Health Wagon has broken down a financial barrier to healthcare access and offers unique and profound opportunities to improve health and expand health care in rural Central Appalachia.
The purpose of this project was: 1) to expand clinical training experiences for undergraduate, graduate and advanced practice nursing students at a rural free clinic, 2) to test the feasibility of developing a model training and practice internship for undergraduate, graduate and advanced-practice nurses as part of a Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA)-funded academic-community partnership to encourage nurses to consider future employment in rural Appalachia and 3) to determine the successes and challenges of this endeavor. This paper reports the successes and challenges of this partnership. Data were collected from nursing students attending the University of Virginia through self-reported student information forms. A total of 145 students (56 advanced practice, 19 graduate and 70 undergraduate nursing students) successfully received scheduled clinical training experiences at three rural clinic sites operated by the Health Wagon (HW), a free clinic in rural Southwest Virginia. It is feasible to develop and implement a long distance academic and community-based partnership to provide real life experiences for undergraduate, graduate and advance practice nurses, including nurse practitioners, in rural settings. Success depends on the commitment of both the academic and free clinic staff to the program, excellent on-site clinical supervision of students, and a source of revenue to cover both on-site and travel related expenses for students and preceptors.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.