Rural Health Program Receives Continued Funding

The Quentin N. Burdick Rural Health Program, co-sponsored by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, the Kauaʻi Rural Health Association, and University Health Group, has received funding in the amount of $734,101 from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program recently completed its initial three-year grant period, and will now continue through June 2005 with the renewed funding.

The Quentin Burdick program provides the opportunity for UH students from a variety of health disciplines to participate in multidisciplinary teams during spring seminars and a summer practicum at six rural sites on the neighbor islands. Since its first year, 58 students from the UH Mānoa Schools of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, Medicine, and Social Work, and the Departments of Psychology and Medical Technology, have collaborated with community members to design and carry out health-enhancing programs at six rural sites on the Big Island, Maui, Kauaʻi, and Molokaʻi.

In Hawaiʻi, nearly 90 percent of the land, 20 percent of the population, and seven of the eight islands are considered rural. The six participating sites for the program are located in these rural areas — Honokaʻa and Pāhoa on the Big Island, Waimea and the area from Līhuʻe to Hanalei on Kauaʻi, Kaunakakai on Molokaʻi, and Hāna on Maui.

Dr. Jan Shoultz, Quentin Burdick program coordinator and associate professor at the UH Mānoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, expressed her excitement with the renewed funding. "The success of the Quentin Burdick program depends on many things — the federal funding support we are fortunate to have received, combined with the dedication of our participating students, faculty, site coordinators, and the long list of community partners who continue to devote so much time and effort to improving the health of rural and underserved communities in Hawaiʻi," she stated. "We look forward to building on our past successes and have already added the UH Mānoa College of Education to the growing list of participating UH colleges and departments."

For more information about the Quentin Burdick Rural Health program, contact Dr. Jan Shoultz at 956-8426 or e-mail shoultz@hawaii.edu.