Interdisciplinary and distance education in the Delta: the Delta Health Education Partnership

The purpose of this article is to describe the activities and outcomes of the Delta Health Education Partnership (DHEP), an interdisciplinary and distance education program developed to promote 'anytime, anywhere' education. The goal of the project is to recruit, educate, and retain interdisciplinary groups of primary care health practitioners to increase access to health care in medically underserved and health professional shortage areas of the lower Mississippi Delta. The targeted health providers are certified nurse midwives, physician assistants, and family nurse practitioners. The DHEP program spans six universities across four primarily rural states. Primary health care students in the lower Mississippi Delta region are taught using asynchronous technology strategies including Internet-based coursework. Opportunities to expand educational options for distance learners and geographically bound students are explained. In addition, methods of building community partnerships in an effort to recruit and retain primary care providers are also explained. The advantages and limitations of the asynchronous Internet-based courses are explored as part of the program evaluation.