Coronavirus in rural America (Part CLXXII): Two public radio stories on rural health services

These stories about rural health issues in the context of COVID both ran yesterday, one on All Things Considered and one on Marketplace.  The first is about how Sackets Harbor, New York, on Lake Ontario in the state's northern reaches, is solving its shortage of first responders by training young folks to do the work.  The second is about the shortage of nurses in rural America, a particular concern with the omicron variant spreading rapidly.  

Here's an excerpt from the former that highlights lack of anonymity in the community:

[Journalist] FEIEREISEL: Then a sudden ray of hope - a whole new batch of teenagers applied to join the crew, starting with Sophia DeVito. She was 16. Her entire family had gotten COVID-19. After that, she wanted to help people.

SOPHIA DEVITO: It's someone's mother. It's someone's father. It's a grandmother. It's a parent. It's a child. Like, these are actual people's lives.

FEIEREISEL: Another four teenagers also came on board. And within months, the crew went from an exhausted three to a functional eight.

Another story about rural emergency services, this one out of the western United States, ran this summer.  

Here's an excerpt from the second story focusing on the nursing shortage in Vermont and New Mexico: 

Vermont was already in dire need of health care workers, even before the pandemic drove many into early retirement and other careers, according to Jeff Tieman with the Vermont Association of Hospitals.

“Our workforce is shrinking and stressed, you know, at a time when we need it to be growing and resilient,” he said.

In New Mexico, more than half of hospitals face critical staffing shortages.

“The amount of physical, mental, emotional fatigue is showing,” said Deborah Walker with the New Mexico Nurses Association.

Many care providers have left the state’s overwhelmed rural hospitals on traveling nurse contracts “to pay off student loans and to command a higher salary,” she said.

With the national shortage of health care workers, small, rural hospitals are having a hard time hiring, said Joanne Spetz with the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

The story concludes by noting that rural patients may have to travel great distances, as in the 100-mile range, for health care.