Now Accepting Applications: Faculty Loan Repayment Program
Apply to the Faculty Loan Repayment Program (FLRP) now through 6:30 pm on July 3. You can decrease your health professional student loan debt by up to $40,000 with two years of full or part-time service at an eligible health professions school.
You are eligible for the Faculty Loan Repayment Program if:
- You come from a disadvantaged background (based on environmental and economic factors)
- You have an eligible health professions degree or certificate
- You are a faculty member at an approved health professions school (you must have a contract for two years or more)
To apply, instructions can be found in the FLRP Application and Program Guidance (PDF) manual, and you must submit your application through the Bureau Health Workforce FLRP Customer Service Portal.
Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program
Eligible substance use disorder (SUD) treatment clinicians and community health workers can apply to the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery (STAR) Loan Repayment Program.
You are eligible for the STAR Loan Repayment Program if you are:
- A United States citizen, national, or permanent resident
- Fully licensed, credentialed in an eligible discipline, and a registered SUD professional
- A full-time employee at a facility approved for the STAR Loan Repayment Program
To apply, please read the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery (STAR) Loan Repayment Program Application and Program Guidance (PDF) and submit your application through the My BHW.
National Health Service Corps 2025 New Site Applications
Are you interested in becoming a National Health Service Corps (NHSC)-approved site? Through June 17, eligible health care facilities can apply to become an NHSC site. These facilities must be located in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), provide outpatient, comprehensive primary health care services to people.
Becoming an NHSC-approved site has benefits, including assistance in recruiting, hiring and retaining qualified clinicians. The new site application cycle is for sites that have never been NHSC-approved or are currently inactive due to expiration or past compliance issues.
What Is Shortage Designation? defines a HPSA and Find Shortage Areas allows users to search HPSA data by state and county.
Minnesota Rural Health Clinic Quality Improvement Basics Learning and Action Network
This no-cost Rural Health Clinic Quality Improvement Basics Learning and Action Network (PDF) is designed to help provider-based rural health clinic (RHC) staff incorporate quality improvement (QI) concepts into organizational practice. Topics include foundational QI skills such as leading a QI team, Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles, process mapping, change management, data collection and analysis, and more.
Participation is open to the first 10 Minnesota Rural Health Clinics to register. Each participating team will be required to identify a project or action area for improvement and identify team members accordingly. RHCs under the same organizational umbrella are welcome to select a joint project and participate as a team. Each team should have at least two members.
Participants are expected to attend four 60-minute interactive virtual group sessions and an individualized project scoping call with a Stratis Health facilitator.
Session times are on the following Tuesdays from 11 am to noon: June 17, July 1, July 15, and July 29. One representative from a team can register here: MN Flex - RHC QI Basics Registration. All team members in the registration will receive a confirmation email with additional information and calendar invites for each session.
For more information, please contact Jodi Winters at jwinters@stratishealth.org.
Planning for and Responding to Extreme Heat
Extreme heat causes more deaths in the U.S. than flooding, tornadoes, and hurricanes combined. Extreme heat events are expected to become more common, more severe, and last longer. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Planning for and Responding to Extreme Heat includes a number of resources for community leaders, including key weather terms, steps to ensure community safety during dangerously hot weather, frequently asked questions and links to external guidance and data.
The Minnesota Extreme Heat Toolkit
With appropriate planning, education, and action, communities can reduce negative health impacts.
MDH recently released the Minnesota Extreme Heat Toolkit (PDF) to assist local public health staff, emergency managers, and community leaders in keeping people safe during days of extreme heat. The toolkit contains strategies and guidance developed to meet the needs of Minnesota communities:
- Chapter 1 defines heat warnings, explores the Health Impacts of Extreme Heat (PDF), and covers factors that increase the risk of heat-related illnesses
- Chapter 2 offers tools to inform decision-making and steps to take to initiate a community-wide heat response
- Chapter 3 includes social media messages, public service announcements, and a sample news release
‘Stay Cool’ During Extreme Heat
The Minnesota Department of Health collaborated with other state agencies to develop the new STAY COOL MN campaign. The multi-media campaign includes digital ads, social media content, a tip sheet on how to stay cool, an infographic on how to identify the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses, print materials, and a webpage.
The STAY COOL MN campaign encourages Minnesotans to follow these tips to stay safe when it’s hot outside:
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Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids throughout the day, especially if you are active outdoors (water or a drink with electrolytes are the best options)
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Stay informed: Check the weather forecast, adjust activities as needed and know the symptoms of heat-related illnesses
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Stay cool: Cool off in air-conditioned places (e.g., malls, libraries), shaded areas, or other cool places
To learn more and share vital information, visit mn.gov/heat.
TALK: Toolkit for Adolescent Care
TALK: Toolkit for Adolescent Care supports primary care clinicians in providing their adolescent patients with high-quality preventive care that addresses psychosocial and sexual health topics. Implemented and tested in primary care clinics in greater Minnesota, the toolkit builds on the Healthy Youth Development - Prevention Research Center (PRC) – Research Center's earlier CASH study, which revealed that many parents and teens want to talk with their primary care clinicians about these topics but lack the opportunity.
TALK features three components:
- Training for clinicians in communication strategies for addressing sensitive topics
- Resources for clinicians, in the form of one-page TALK Tools
- Standardizing adolescent-friendly clinic practices, such as a pre-appointment "Welcome to adolescent care" letter to adolescents, and a similar letter to parents
TALK Training Options
TALK provides skills, scripts, and examples that can be put to immediate use, and can adapt to your team’s needs. Settings range from one-hour “Lunch and Learns” to a multi-session format that can build participants’ motivational Interviewing skills – and identify opportunities to apply them – using supportive one-page TALK tools. For TALK trainings for healthcare professionals, contact Chris Mehus at cjmehus@umn.edu.
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Skin Lightening and Mercury Exposure
The Toxic Free Kids program and the Biomonitoring program at the Minnesota Department of Health are offering healthcare provider trainings on mercury exposure in skin lightening products. This in-person or virtual presentation offers one (1) continuing medical education (CME) credit. The primary goal of the training is to raise awareness and give providers guidance and next steps for identifying patients at risk for elevated mercury exposure.
Please email training requests to health.risk@state.mn.us.
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