​As part of our work on the HRSA award that established the Southern Tier Health Workforce Excellence Partnership, I met with Christine Schuyler and Kathleen Martel of SUNY JCC this week to discuss our plans for addressing the workforce shortages in the Southern Tier. I will also meet today with Kylea Andreano, the Community Health Grants Manager of Chautauqua Health Network (CHN), to plan for the three years of this award.  CHN and SUNY JCC lead the Southern Tier Health Workforce Excellence Partnership, and we look forward to this collaboration. 

This week, orientation sessions were held at all 3 locations for the paramedic program. This was an opportunity for the students to get familiar with the location they would be attending, meet with the instructors, and learn about the program’s expectations over the next 14 months. We are excited for these 34 individuals taking this next step in their EMS careers to become paramedics and wish them all the best of luck!  

Thanks to funding through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service, distance learning equipment has been installed at ALSTAR EMS Training Center in Jamestown, and Universal Primary Care in Olean will have their new equipment installed at the end of this month. We are excited that this new equipment can be used for many educational opportunities, including the upcoming 2023-2024 Paramedic Program with over 30 individuals enrolled.

Our Step Into Healthcare program was able to have a strategic plan created thanks to funding through the Office of Rural Health. We recently worked with a Catchafire volunteer to have this strategic plan graphically designed and professionally printed. Please click here to see what we have planned for Step Into Health Care over the next several years. Also, please let me know if you would like to receive a hard copy of this report.