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About

Alberta Rural Health Week

Provide your local health-care heroes with a healthy dose of recognition

/About/Alberta Rural Health Week
About

May 25-29, 2020

is Alberta Rural

Health Week.

Let’s celebrate rural Alberta!

May 25-29, 2020 is Alberta Rural Health Week: a great opportunity to honour the contributions of the rural Alberta health-care providers and community volunteers who help keep health care close to home. 

Rural health providers are powerful assets in their communities. Not only do their health-care skills and practices enhance the quality of rural life, but these professionals also contribute to rural life on a more personal level. They have special relationships with their patients and community; they not only provide care, but are also family, friends, neighbours, and volunteers, and often teach and mentor future health-care providers within their communities. 

During Alberta Rural Health Week, we encourage communities to show appreciation for the contributions of the rural health providers whose abilities enhance the quality of life in rural Alberta.

Alberta Rural Health Week is also an opportunity to say thank you to the local volunteers who go above and beyond to support health care and health-care providers in their communities. 

We will also be announcing the 2020 recipients of the the RhPAP Rhapsody Awards. Watch our website and social media for details!

Join the conversation!

During Alberta Rural Health Week, be sure to consider the following: 

  • Give a shout out to the health professionals in your area that mean so much to you – Remember to tag #RuralHealthMatters
  • Follow RhPAP on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube at @AlbertaRhPAP 
  • Stay tuned to RhPAP social media (@AlbertaRhPAP) and this web page (http://ruralhealthweek.ab.ca) for information about news and special events pertaining to Alberta Rural Health Week 

Snap a picture with a #RuralHealthMatters sign and show your support for rural health. Click the image to download your own sign!

Alberta Rural Health Week celebrates the contributions of rural Alberta-based community members and health professionals to the quality of life in rural Alberta.  

Celebrate!

Give your local health providers a healthy dose of recognition 

How can you celebrate the amazing work that our health professionals and local volunteers do every day in rural Alberta?

  • Appreciation can be shown with a card, an advertisement, a thank-you letter in the local newspaper, an announcement on the local radio station, or a simple gift.
  • Many communities around rural Alberta organize health professional recognition activities to express their appreciation for their health-care heroes.
  • Ask your local RhPAP Rural Community Consultants about how to recognize and celebrate those within your community who help keep health care close to home.
  • Is your community looking for health professionals? RhPAP can help. We have a full toolkit of great ideas for attracting and retaining health professionals in rural communities.
  • Stay tuned for the names of the 2019 RhPAP Rhapsody Award recipients – to be announced during Alberta Rural Health Week!

Other suggestions include: 

  • Drop off a thermos of coffee with treats and/or mementos
  • Hold a draw from names of all local health providers in the community for a gift donated by a local retailer. Follow up with a picture and acknowledgement in the papers. Consider doing it monthly!
  • Hold a community tea at the health centre
  • Share some baking or a fruit plate
  • Profile your health proivder(s) in the newspaper
  • Write a thank-you card
  • Recognize the important days (birthdays, work anniversaries, etc.).
  • Mention their accomplishments at community events
  • Host a BBQ
  • In coordination with local elementary or high schools, build opportunities where students’ work can be shared with or presented to your health provider
  • Gift an appreciation basket

Consider doing something to celebrate the health providers during their professional recognition day/week (For example: Nursing Week in May; Paramedics Week and Licensed Practical Nurses Week in June; Medical Radiation Technologist (MRT) Week in November.) 

 

Rural health providers are powerful assets in their communities. Not only do their health-care skills and practices enhance the quality of rural life, but these professionals also contribute to rural life on a more personal level.

© Rural Health Professions Action Plan