“Aaron, we would like to hire a male family nurse practitioner for our rural clinic in North Dakota. A large portion of our patient population is adult male farmers who just won’t come and see our female nurse practitioners,” Roger said. “What do you think the chances are of us finding a male family nurse practitioner who has experience and wouldn’t mind a moderate call schedule?”
I take in what Roger is asking me, lean back in my chair, gaze at the cracked ceiling tiles of my office, and hope I can provide an answer as I start thinking about the number of nurse practitioners Roger wants to consider for his predicament.
My answer for him is, to put it lightly, not good. According to the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners’ 2009–2010 survey, 96 percent of all nurse practitioners are female. So, we are starting with 4 percent of all nurse practitioners currently practicing in the United States. Assuming equal distribution across the spectrum and knowing only 48 percent of all nurse practitioners are family nurse practitioners; we can theoretically halve our whopping four percent again.
So, with our 2 percent of the total number of nurse practitioners currently practicing, I look at how many nurse practitioners are practicing in rural communities. That number, 17.8 percent, turns our once two percent to 0.3 percent—the number of nurse practitioners likely to practice in his community. Finally, we can assume eight percent of nurse practitioners are looking to switch jobs in 2011, and I realize Roger and I are looking for a provider that composes 0.02 percent of the total practicing population of nurse practitioners.
“Well, Roger, I just don’t think we want to go down this road today,” I say as I begin collecting information on his practice opportunity. I certainly don’t want to ruin Roger’s hopes, but I think we have a better chance of finding and hiring Santa Claus for him.
As the workforce specialist for the Center for Rural Health (CRH) at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, conversations similar to this one with Roger are an everyday reality for me. The CRH focuses on three areas to help support health workforce recruitment and retention in North Dakota. One of those areas focuses on assisting communities in recruiting health care professionals. Because many of the communities we work with have needs for primary care providers, our program concentrates mainly on family practice, internal medicine, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, and various other specialties as they come up.
The first steps I take after receiving a phone call like Roger’s is to get an overview of the opportunity. Next we talk about where the facility can promote and advertise their opportunity, and finally, I will inform health professionals training in our state and others of the new opportunity we’re now assisting with.
The Center for Rural Health works with rural communities in many capacities to help support them and their local health care needs. The Center has a longstanding reputation of strengthening local capacity in the health care arena and developing community-based health care alternatives for rural North Dakota. The Center serves as North Dakota’s State Office of Rural Health that is dedicated to improving access to and enhancing the quality of health care for its rural citizens. Core functions of the state office include coordinating resources and activities, providing technical assistance, and strengthening the ability of rural communities to recruit and retain health care providers.
