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Date of Report:
04/2007
Source:
Mountain Plains AETC
The Mountain Plains AETC (MPAETC) region covers approximately 20% of the total U.S. land mass; however the total population is a mere 5.2% of the U.S. population.1 As a result, providing education and technical assistance to rural health care providers is especially difficult. MPAETC faculty and staff are constantly challenged by obstacles such as stigma, limited resources, denial, long driving distances, and harsh weather. To address some of these challenges, Kansas AETC, a local performance site of MPAETC, has implemented an innovative and successful program titled the Targeted Outreach Education Project (TOEP) to reach rural providers throughout the state of Kansas.
TOEP was implemented in June 2005 to provide education for hard-to-reach health care professionals on current HIV information and resources. The outreach addresses emerging topics such as HIV testing, with a focus on rapid and conventional testing methods as well as the 2006 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HIV Testing Recommendations.
A strength of TOEP is accessibility. TOEP programs are held at the rural health care providers' practice site or in the towns where they practice, allowing them the ability to devote one or two hours to a program, rather than close their practices for a day or more to travel to a program in an urban area. Incentives to attend TOEP education programs are free continuing education credits, educational materials, and a meal during the training program.
As a direct result of TOEP educational presentations in 2006-07, the Kansas AETC has tracked increases in individual and group consultation requests, technical assistance contacts, and clinical training requests. To maintain the quality of TOEP input from providers through a statewide needs assessment is used to continually update the program and to better understand the barriers to education for rural providers. TOEP has used proven marketing and adult education strategies to overcome the challenges of providing HIV education to hard-to-reach providers with excellent results. For more information regarding TOEP or the Kansas AETC, contact Donna Sweet, MD, MACP or Susan Tusher, LMSW at
kaetc@kumc.edu
or 316-293-2682. You can also visit the Kansas AETC website at
www.kaetc.org
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