This week is National AHEC Week. Area Health Education Centers, or AHECs, support students along their education pathway to careers in health and medicine. AHECs across the country are working to recruit, train, and retain health care professionals to meet the needs of people living in rural and underserved communities. For over fifty years, the AHEC program has worked to connect students to careers, health professionals to communities, and communities to better health.
Research shows that people who are raised in an underserved community are more likely to practice in an underserved community as a licensed health professional. For this reason, AHEC supports young Vermonters to explore health careers and creates opportunities for health professions students to have quality clinical and community-based educational experiences in rural Vermont. Seeing is believing and experiencing is proof; the field of health and medicine offers a wide variety of gainful and fulfilling jobs, and Vermont is a wonderful place to live and work. These strategies contribute to growing our own health workforce in Vermont.
The Vermont AHEC Network delivers programs and activities to support students and professionals along their educational and health career pipeline. To learn more about AHEC programs in Vermont, visit the Southern Vermont AHEC at svtahec.org; the Northern Vermont AHEC at nvtahec.org; or the UVM AHEC Program at vtahec.org.