First, second and third year medical students at the University of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford campus, participate in community learning experiences in the Garden AHEC service area.
First and Second Year Students:
Students participate in the Community Involved Primary Care (CIPC) experience that occurs during the first and second years of medical school. Students work in teams on projects in the Garden AHEC service area that focus on health promotion and disease prevention. The teams work with community–based providers on a health promotional interventional project that they identify by performing a needs assessment. They then design and implement a health improvement imitative that incorporates the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, evidence-based recommendations for preventive services that should be provided in the primary care setting. These recommendations are considered to be the gold standards for preventive services for screening, counseling, and preventive medications.
Student projects have included topics on medication management for seniors, denture care and oral hygiene for seniors, STI awareness for young adults, healthy cooking and meal planning for families residing in public housing communities, and childhood obesity.
Third Year Students:
Students in the third year of medical school participate in a ten-day Community Learning Experience. Students work at sites in the Garden AHEC service area providing health education and medical assistance to a variety of medically underserved populations. Placements have included hospice care; cancer treatment; continuing care for seniors; residential programs for youth; day programs for the developmentally disabled; emergency services; occupational health; and diabetic care to a Native American community. Many placements are at South Jersey Healthcare programs.
Garden AHEC places students at community host sites four times a year. The purpose of this program is to give students an opportunity to interact with underserved populations, practice in underserved areas (lacking sufficient medical services) and to encourage students to pursue careers in medically underserved communities.
- I really enjoyed working with the elders of the Indian tribe. It was quite a cultural experience learning about rituals and different recipes. That was an experience that I could not have received while working in the hospital.
- Truly an eye-opening experience; every student should spend time at this site during their pediatrics rotation…
- I greatly enjoyed my service-learning rotation and can’t think of anything I would do to improve this rotation. It was an excellent learning experience both on the educational level as well as a personal level.