As a Healthcare Educator, Nielsen leads group in closing healthcare gap.
Dr. Richard P. Nielsen, President of Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMUoHP) was recognized recently as a 2019 Healthcare Hero in the Healthcare Educator category for his many years serving Utah’s healthcare education community and helping close the need gap for more healthcare professionals.
Nielsen was the Founding President of The Institute of Clinical Electrophysiology (1994-1998). He currently serves as the Founding President and CEO of Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMUoHP), Founding President and CEO of the proposed Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine (Noorda-COM), and Founding President of World of Difference (a charitable humanitarian foundation that provides educational facilities for the under-served children of Africa and healthcare experiences for graduate healthcare students from RMUoHP).
“A key founder of Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions … [Dr. Nielsen] has spent the last 21 years fostering the doctoral and master’s degree levels of education in the next generation of the nation’s healthcare practitioners,” said Utah Business Magazine, sponsor of the 2019 Healthcare Heroes. “Now, he’s in the midst of founding (and developing) the proposed Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine, the first medical school in Utah County.”
Unpretentious of the recognition, Nielsen, who is a very early riser and does his best thinking while running every morning, is quick to point out his acknowledgment is shared among a growing group of talented colleagues, employees, and students within his organizations.
“It is humbling to be recognized for the great work that so many people have been involved in over the years to help and move healthcare forward,” said Nielsen. “I’m surrounded by the best healthcare practitioners, the greatest faculty and staff, and a growing number of students who will graduate and go out and serve hundreds of thousands and even millions of people during their careers in Utah, the United States, and throughout the world.”
Nielsen recently returned from a humanitarian trip to Africa where he and his wife, Jodi, and graduate healthcare students and faculty of RMUoHP helped build schools for underserved children, drilled a well in the remote villages in which they worked, and participated in providing healthcare needs with other local healthcare providers and students in the third world hospital and clinics of Lilongwe, Malawi. Nielsen has been providing humanitarian service, including building schools and libraries, drilling wells, and providing healthcare education opportunities for RMUoHP students and faculty, for the under-resourced people of Africa for the past 32 years.
“Our philosophy and one of the RMUoHP’s core values is about providing service to others,” said Nielsen. “Whether we are working in our professions, serving those in need at our free clinics in Utah County, serving children and others in Africa, or weekend RMUoHP student service projects during the semester, it is always about making people’s lives a bit better and to making a world of difference across the planet. Jodi and I have a motto we try to live by which says, ‘You don’t have to go out of your way to serve somebody – you just simply do it on your way.’”
Nielsen is founding president and CEO of the Noorda-COM, which recently received Candidate Status from the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation. Noorda-COM is a newly proposed medical school planned for opening in Provo in approximately late 2021. The school will potentially increase the number of students graduating with a medical degree in Utah significantly addressing the shortage of medical professionals currently experienced throughout the state.
“Dr. Nielsen also served as a physical therapist with the U.S. Navy for 20 years and served as the specialty consultant to the U.S. Congress, Senate, Supreme Court, Surgeon General, Pentagon, and the White House as a board-certified electroneuromyographer. He is also co-founder of two charitable foundations,” said Utah Business Magazine.
