3RNET Mission, Vision & History
3RNET Mission
3RNET works to improve rural and underserved communities' access to quality health care through recruitment of physicians and other health care professionals, development of community based recruitment and retention activities, and national advocacy relative to rural and underserved health care workforce issues.
3RNET Vision
3RNET is the national leader for community-based health professional recruitment and retention, using interactive technologies and communication.
3RNET History
Fred Moskol, the mastermind of 3RNET, was a pharmacist by training and the first Director of the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health. In his role as director, Fred focused on physician recruitment and, with others, created the New Physicians for Wisconsin recruitment program, which encouraged family medicine physicians from the Midwest to practice in Wisconsin’s rural communities.
Access to healthcare was a nationwide problem and especially severe in rural areas. Fred envisioned a national organization to address this need – one that focused not just on recruitment, but on community development and the selection of providers who would become invested in the communities and provide ongoing services. From 1975 to 1995, Fred championed the cause and began building support across the country. Fred emphasized community development. This meant knowing the people in the community, identifying key individuals, and developing informed cadres that could talk to prospective physicians about healthcare and economic development.
In 1995, after 20 years of advocating for a network supporting rural recruitment, the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health voted to approve a national recruitment program. 3RNET began operating that year with twelve members. By 2013, the organization had grown to fifty-three members and was recognized as a national voice on rural recruitment and retention issues. When incorporated in 1999, Fred Moskol served as the Executive Director and Nikki Kennedy was hired as the Administrator.
In 2002, the Board of Directors formulated 3RNET’s mission:
3RNET works to improve rural and underserved communities’ access to quality healthcare through the recruitment and retention of physicians and other healthcare professionals, development of community based recruitment and retention activities, and national advocacy relative to rural and underserved healthcare workforce issues.
A significant method for actualizing the mission was the ongoing development of 3RNET’s website, which serves as a clearinghouse for its members. Each member maintains state and regional pages within the 3RNET website, providing information about communities, available opportunities, and loan repayment programs. Members and health care facilities can post opportunities directly to the website and members can access a candidate database.
About Fred Moskol
Fred Moskol, the founding father of 3RNET, is a man of many talents, but is perhaps most recognized for his distinguished role in health care. Fred is a visionary and a man of determination who resolutely worked for more than twenty years to create a national healthcare recruitment organization to serve rural and underserved America.
While serving as the director of the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health and associate director of the Wisconsin AHEC at the University of Wisconsin, Fred lead the effort to create a national rural recruitment network primarily comprised of State Offices of Rural Health.
In 1995, after years of promoting and cajoling, the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH) officially voted to support Freds’ idea of a national recruitment organization. In 1999, the National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network was incorporated, and Fred became the first executive director of 3RNET. He remained in this position until 2005.
The creation of a national recruitment organization, however, was anything but an easy birth. Fred experienced repeated rebuffs and rejections from organizations and individuals he deemed to be critical partners, partners that would need to work collaboratively if this organization was to be get off the ground and be successful. Refusing to be deterred, Fred embodied the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
From the outset, Fred stressed that physician recruitment was all about community development and retention, two themes that continue to be at the epicenter of today’s recruitment efforts. In those early days, being an organizational member required having a phone and a person to answer it. t was as basic as that. But Fred recognized the critical role technology might play in the recruitment and retention effort and quickly embraced the use of the World Wide Web to help promote 3RNET to a wider audience. He created the first 3RNET website with the guidance of one of his staff members, a website that has evolved over the years but remains the primary working tool of 3RNET.
By the time Fred retired as Executive Director in 2005, 3RNET had:
- Grown to include 44 members
- Published the Recruitment and Retention Manual
- Initiated Associate Membership
- Crafted a mission statement
- Begun doing an annual survey
About Tim Skinner
Tim Skinner served as 3RNET Executive Director from 2005 – 2011 and Co-Director with Tom Tucker from 2011 - 2012. Tim brought years of experience in physician recruitment to the job, was well versed in recruitment and retention issues, and had a warm and welcoming disposition that put everyone at ease. Tim embraced the job and brought a new energy to 3RNET. As Jerry Coopey would later say, “Tim cranked it up to another level.”
Tim’s grew 3RNET into a truly national network, strengthening the 3RNET website, increasing the legitimacy of both our organization with his physician recruitment background, and growing the 3RNET Annual Conference by always encouraging member participation. Tim understood the unique opportunity available to members through attending the 3RNET Annual Conference: where members could learn from and lean on one another by meeting their counterparts from across the country in a face-to-face setting.
Collaboration was in the forefront of Tim’s mind. He strongly believed that the blessing and curse of 3RNET was its diversity. As one member later noted, his task was not unlike rounding up a herd of cats. Tim embraced the diversity and fostered the notion that working together was essential for success. He believed it was critical to collaborate on all levels and steadfastly worked to make it a reality.
Tim also patiently worked to increase the membership of 3RNET. His ceaseless efforts bore fruit and by 2007, all (50) fifty states had become Organizational Members, along with the Cherokee Nation and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (a U.S. Territory).
Tim Skinner used his knowledge from being a recruiter to create tools and resources to further 3RNET's mission. Perhaps his most lasting legacy on 3RNET was growing and nurturing 3RNET members into a community of recruiters across the country, including each year at the 3RNET Annual Conference.
Tim believed in 3RNET members learning from each other. So, in 2019, 3RNET created the Skinner Scholarship Award, which is presented to a 3RNET organizational or associate member seeking to attend 3RNET’s Annual Conference.