Background and Purpose: The North Carolina General Assembly recently enacted Session Law 2023-134. This legislation provided funding to the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Program (NC-AHEC) to develop and implement five Rural Interprofessional Clinical Teaching Hubs (Teaching Hubs) incorporating two of more professions across the state. The purpose of this Lightening Talk is to describe a four-way collaboration between the North Carolina legislature, NC-AHEC, community-based practices, and institutions of higher education to address workforce development in rural communities.

Description: At the end of this Lightening talk, participants will be able to: 1) Explain characteristics of North Carolina General Assembly Session Law 2023-134; 2) Describe the processes utilized by NC-AHEC to drive practice-led creation of the Teaching Hubs across North Carolina; and 3) Summarize the assessment plan to generate real-world evidence on implementation experiences of the Teaching Hubs. The Lightening Talk will provide knowledge to learners through integration of short, impactful activities that engage the audience in generating ideas for addressing team-based workforce development in rural communities in conjunction with new knowledge dissemination. The talk will encourage learners to actively engage through reflection fostering a deeper understanding of the concepts.