Educating rural allied health professionals: an interdisciplinary effort.

This article describes the process and outcome of an innovative, interdisciplinary educational effort which was initiated in rural Maine. Within the context of a comprehensive, statewide interdisciplinary rural health care training project that was federally funded through the Interdisciplinary Training for Health Care for Rural Areas (ITHCRA) grant program, a primary strategy for recruiting and training rural allied health practitioners was the development and implementation of a year long interdisciplinary graduate course sequence. The results of the evaluation suggested that interdisciplinary education is not only useful in learning the roles and functions of allied health professions, but is valuable tool in promoting the development of skills necessary for competent and relevant rural allied health practice.