Rural Nursing Education Consortium produces local nurses and wins 2024 Outstanding Rural Health Program

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Amarillo College recently announced that the National Rural Health Association named the Rural Nursing Education Consortium as a 2024 recipient of the Outstanding Rural Health Program. This program was created in 2019 by him to support the supply of homegrown nurses to the consortium. Hospitals throughout the Texas Panhandle.

According to AC, RNEC was established on February 26, 2019 and has produced approximately 100 locally-born graduates since its establishment.

The award “highlights extraordinary efforts to promote access to health care and education in rural areas,” according to a release from AC. The award will be presented at NRHA's 47th Annual Rural Health Conference on May 9 in New Orleans.

“This is an incredibly gratifying honor,” said Dr. Tamara Clunis, AC Vice President for Academic Affairs. “This certainly reinforces the commitment of all RNEC partners who are actively working to establish proactive solutions to the real rural nursing shortage.”

RNEC is comprised of higher education partners Amarillo College, Frank Phillips University, and West Texas A&M University, and local hospitals including:

• Durham County Hospital District.
• Golden Plains Hospital;
• Hereford Regional Medical Center;
• Moore County Hospital District.and
• Ochiltree General Hospital.

Officials noted that the RNEC was established to expand nursing education opportunities to universities within the service area, and participating hospitals also provide classrooms and serve as clinical sites.

In this program, AC offers an associate nursing curriculum in each participating hospital district, and Frank Phillips University provides students with a vocational nursing program. WTAMU also provides educational resources for graduates pursuing a bachelor's degree in nursing.

Through RNEC, officials noted that AC has produced a total of 67 RNs, “many of whom went on to successful LVN careers with Frank Phillips.”

Clunis said the majority of RNEC graduates have accepted local employment opportunities, furthering RNEC's goal of establishing a homegrown nursing workforce to “alleviate health care disparities in the Texas Panhandle region.” He explained that he was supporting them.