May 07, 2006 - 09:19:17 CDT
Canadian and other foreign physicians used to fill a lot of blank spots on North Dakota's rural health care map.Not any longer.
The number of them applying for a J1 visa, which requires working in underserved areas, has been shrinking drastically.
St. Luke's Hospital administrator at Crosby, Les Urvand, said towns like his are getting left out in the cold.
"We used to have 150 applicants," Urvand said.
The hospital has had a physician vacancy for nearly a half year, with only a handful of applications.
The same is true in Tioga. It made a couple of offers to physicians, but in both cases, the offer was turned down because the physician's spouse didn't want to make the move.
Nearly all of North Dakota - 81 percent - is considered a health professional shortage area.
Since 1994, the J1 visa program has cut the number of physician vacancies by half, while at any given time, there are still 20 vacancies statewide.
The problem with spouse comfort is common, but so is cultural comfort.
Tioga Medical Center administrator Randall Peterson said he's found that's part of the reason some foreign physicians don't want to come to small rural communities.
"They want a town that has another Pakistani doctor to relate with," he explained, by way of example.
Yet another factor is a separate visa program, called H1B, which does not require rural service.
In effect, one visa program undercuts the other.
It'll get worse. By 2020, the physician shortage will reach 200,000, with small towns feeling the hardest pinch.
"It's not a whole lot of (physician) names, and a lot of places are already competing," Urvand said.
- The Journal
Cash talks
A second family is taking advantage of a financial incentive and moving to Hazelton.
The Hazelton Development Corp. will pay $20,000 toward the cost of a new home being constructed by Russ and Kristin Schick, now of Bismarck.
The town is advertising the incentive to bring new families to the school and community.
The Schicks have two daughters and a third child on the way, and plan to move into their new Hazelton home this fall.
The basement was capped to give the Schicks time to sell their 40 acres near Bismarck. They purchased a section of land near Hazelton and plan to use it to run cattle, along with a family operation in the area.
The couple said they were persuaded to make the move by the quality of the school and the financial incentive.
"We both graduated from small schools and we feel more comfortable having our kids in that environment," Kristin Schick said.
The couple won't be too far from home. He's from Herreid, S.D., and she's from Pollock, S.D.
Besides the incentive, the Hazelton location was a close commute to Bismarck, where Russ Schick is a certified public accountant with Anderson and Associates and Kristin Schick is a part-time respiratory therapist for Medcenter One.
"We're excited about the change and look forward to small town living," she said.
- Emmons County Record
Soddy at Bowman
Homesteaders to North Dakota encountered a sea of grass and hardly a tree anywhere.
So they did their best, using that grass sod to build shelters from the elements.
Many of the first homes, particularly in western North Dakota, were made of thick, long-rooted grass strips, not only for the walls, but the roof as well.
The Bowman County historical group and the Pioneer Trails Museum is recreating history.
Starting last week and continuing Saturday and today, the museum's volunteers are reconstructing a sod house on the museum grounds at Bowman.
The idea is to have a replica so that people can experience the unique size and earthy smell of the primitive buildings.
It's brought on a wave of reminiscing.
Jim Oberfoell of Bowman lived in a sod house until he was 11 years old.
He remembers the 3-foot-deep windows, with fun space for playing, and how it was snug in the winter and cool in the summer.
It was hard to keep clean, though. Oberfoell remembers his mother's efforts to secure the sod and brighten it with wallpaper, which didn't adhere well.
"It was a nice house but I was excited to move into our new home," Oberfoell said.
Art Hinkley, of Bowman, also was born in a sod house back in 1915.
He remembers it was small and always seemed a little dirty. Everything was homemade.
"My father used to use the top part of his leather shoe for the hinges on the door," he said.
It was Hinkley's idea to reconstruct a sod house.
"Sod houses were a big part of the history in the southwest corner of North Dakota," he said.
- Bowman County Pioneer
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