Still coming to you after all these years
Message from Sylvia Alonzo Rawlings, Director
I am excited to welcome you to The Rural Health Outreach Program, where no matter where in rural Texas you live or work, you are only a phone call or email away from bringing quality continuing education to your region’s doorstep.
One of only two state-funded outreach programs in Texas, but the only one that provides on-site quality continuing education (CE), the RHOP programs are delivered by outstanding faculty from the UT Arlington College of Nursing and outside consultants. The demand for our programs has increased our service area from the original 15 rural counties surrounding the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex to 189 of the 254 Texas counties, as of 2010-2011. Such a vast geographic area requires flexibility, and the ability to identify the different education needs and special health care challenges of multiple regions. Listening to you and assessing the different education needs allows us the opportunity to tailor programs to address individual needed topics. Whether you work at a hospital, clinic, home health agency, or long-term care facility, the RHOP is there to serve. Do not have the facility or classroom available? No worries, you will find our current program calendar could be holding a class in a library, civic center, or various school settings, among other places.
We continually respond to requests for our program content to be delivered in multiple venues. In addition to on-site program delivery, we offer on-line access to magazine articles authored by our faculty. An exciting new collaboration with the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals (TORCH) was established to provide new continuing education opportunities in 2012.
Throughout the services provided, we hold true to our mission of providing quality accessible and affordable CE. An exceptional and long-standing collaborative relationship with the Texas Department of Rural Affairs (TDRA) provides supplemental grant funds to the RHOP to ensure affordable education throughout rural Texas.
It is important for us to help you stay current about health care issues affecting rural Texas, such as The Accountable Care Act, National HIV/AIDS Strategy, or Accountable Care Organizations as well as evidence based practice standards and leadership knowledge and skills. To that end, we dedicate information on our website to inform you of existing rural challenges and the advocacy efforts by those championing for the improvement of health care in rural Texas.
This is an exciting yet challenging time for nurses and other health care providers. We are privileged to serve your education needs through continuing education to ensure the health of rural Texas citizens.