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Northeast Oregon Campus for Rural Health

Oregon Health & Science University

What is the Campus for Rural Health?

Quick Overview

OHSU students travel to northeast Oregon and are provided housing while they spend time shadowing a rural health professional for 4 weeks. They attend a weekly class, participate in a community project, and become more acquainted with rural healthcare.

Full Program Description

Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) Campus for Rural Health (CRH) is different in each of the three regions, but the Northeast Oregon Campus looks like this: a student from one of OHSU’s health professions programs travels to northeast Oregon. Immersive clinical experiences and housing are coordinated.

The student spends 4 weeks in this space, working with a rural provider and witnessing their day-to-day life while learning the intricacies and unique benefits of being so far from urban areas.

On top of their clinical experience, the student will attend a weekly Interprofessional Education class and will participate in a community-based project where they become more aware of the unique rural health challenges, needs, and solutions.

The CRH was created 10 years ago, and when it was brought to northeast Oregon, it served as an advancement of the work that had been done by NEOAHEC and other organizations in the region for decades. So far, nearly 1,500 interprofessional learners have been immersed in rural communities as part of the three campuses.

The Regional Associate Dean of the Northeast Oregon Campus, Patty Barfield, describes it, “At the heart of the Campus for Rural Health, the next generation of healthcare professionals learn from, with, and about the communities they rotate in, and they leave a little piece of themselves here through their work on a community-based project.”

Who is part of the Northeast Oregon Campus?

The following organizations have been key in creating and maintaining the Northeast Oregon Campus for Rural Health: