WEST RIVER AREA HEALTH EDUCATION CENTER

Community impact:wrahec implemented the third year of the department of labor, h-1b rural health care grant with partners: redfield community hospital, usd center for rural health improvement, and monument health. There has been many successes with upskilling students into high demand healthcare jobs like certified nursing assistant, licensed practical nursing, registered nursing, pre-nursing, bsn in nursing, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics across south dakota. This program is changing lives for the better with great paying and rewarding healthcare occupations while lessening the extreme workforce shortage south dakota has been facing. Wrahec also utilized this funding to provide two events for the community. The first event was mission:possible which is a behavioral health event which offers healthcare professionals continuing education credits for attending. This event includes nationally recognized speakers, local professionals, and community leaders to share engaging content about substance misuse and mental illness while providing many opportunities for networking with other professionals from across south dakota. This event was held during mid july of 2024. In addition, we hosted the 5th annual rural health equity summit in september 2024, where healthcare professionals from rural areas of south dakota come together to discuss critical issues affecting health equity in rural areas of the state. The 2024 summit was attended by over 100 people from across the state and hosted 11 speakers who addressed critical issues affecting health and outcomes for people living in rural areas of south dakota. This event was the catalyst for taking a statewide approach for working on healthcare workforce shortages. Finally, the wrahec is invited to many community events to display our 14' inflatable mega brain to teach people about keeping a healthy brain and body and how to minimize diseases of the brain.