Advocacy

NRHA Archived Policy Documents

Seven years after being approved, papers or policy briefs automatically undergo a two-part review process. If the Rural Health Congress does not make a decision on the paper or brief within eight years of approval, or if the congress votes to archive a paper, it is no longer considered an official position of NRHA.

If you have any questions about any of these papers or if you are an NRHA member and would like to revisit/update any of these papers, please contact  the NRHA Government Affairs Team.

The policy positions listed below were originally adopted by NRHA's Rural Health Congress:

2012 NRHA Policy Papers  
2011 NRHA Policy Papers  
2010 NRHA Policy Papers
2009 NRHA Policy Papers  

Recruitment and Retention of a Quality Health Workforce in Rural Areas

A series of policy papers on the Rural Health Careers Pipeline
Introduction:Defining the Issues and the Principles of Recruitment and Retention, January 2012
Pre-2009 Policy Papers (alpha)
The National Rural Health Association believes rural communities should have access to the most appropriately trained dental health professionals relative to the size and demographics of the community. In frontier Alaska, tribal programs experience a 25 percent annual vacancy rate and 30 percent annual turnover rate for dentists. Alaska Native children have 2.5 times more dental disease than all U.S. races. Additionally, the geography of Alaska increases the cost of providing dental care, and many villages face economic conditions that make support of a full-time dentist unfeasible. Therefore, NRHA fully endorses the provision of oral health care via dental health aides and therapists in small, frontier communities in Alaska.