The Foundation recognizes that the development of effective service delivery models alone will not ensure access to primary care. Efforts to increase the number of primary care providers (e.g. physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physicians' assistants) in Virginia's medical, mental, and dental health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) are equally important. To that end, the Foundation is interested in funding community initiatives that will bring more primary care providers to these areas.
To date, the Foundation has supported the establishment of Virginia's first Physician's Assistant school; preceptorships in underserved areas; and a wide variety of projects that have brought new primary care providers to underserved areas.
In addition, the Foundation has funded a number of medical and dental clinics in medically-underserved areas that provide clinical experiences for a variety of health professions students in addition to delivering medical care. Projects like these are of special interest because they meet the short-term objective of providing primary care and the longer-term objective of exposing future health professionals to practice experiences in medically underserved areas.
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