A one-year, $100,000 grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will be used to study health care workforce shortage on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation. HRSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
The grant was awarded to the South Dakota State University College of Nursing’s Rapid City site, the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine, Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board and Catholic Social Services Rapid City. The four entities will work together to:
- Conduct a health care workforce needs assessment of Pine Ridge’s professional and nonprofessional health care vacancies, current and projected;
- Provide an assessment template that Great Plains tribes can use to gather similar information;
- Host a health care workforce needs summit to share findings; and
- Establish and maintain workforce data on the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board’s website.