How can providing 'social capital' help rural areas attract health-care professionals? A new study offers insights

Puzzle photo by Hans-Peter Gauster, Unsplash

"Social capital" is a wonky phrase for "a personal and professional relationship network."A new report from the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service shows that those relationships "were crucial to recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals in rural areas of nine states," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. ERS Economist John Pender, an author of the study, told Eaton, "In the case of health-care professionals, the relationships that they consider when making these decisions include social relationships with family, friends, and other people in the community, and professional relationships with professional colleagues, supervisors, staff, and patients."

Eaton adds, "Another factor cited as important by most health-care professionals for deciding to stay in the towns that were part of the study was their investment in their practice. That likely reflects investment in relationships with patients and others as well as investment in facilities and recruitment and training of staff, Pender said. . . . While some of the findings likely hold more generally in other contexts–we cannot be sure that they apply in every context."

"Pender said this study found that factors within the control of rural communities – such as their friendliness toward newcomers, being a good place to raise a family, the quality of the local schools, and the quality of the local medical community and facilities – are among the most cited factors considered important by healthcare professionals in their decisions," Eaton writes. "The study examined 150 small rural towns with a population between 2,500 and 20,000 in ... Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin." The report notes, "These findings suggest that rural communities can have a significant influence on attracting and retaining healthcare professionals through investments in social, human, and physical capital."