Contact
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, Program Coordinator
801-716-4615
The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Students to Service Loan Repayment Program (S2S LRP) pilot application cycle is open until December 15, 2011.
Student/Resident Experiences and Rotations in Community Health (SEARCH) is a state-based program that enables students and residents to serve clinical rotations on multidisciplinary health care teams in underserved communities across the United States and its territories.
The mission of the Utah SEARCH program is to provide community-based educational opportunities for health professional students/residents to enhance the recruitment and retention of clinical providers committed to primary care service delivery for medically underserved populations.
Learning in a community-based practice in an underserved area offers medical, dental and mental health students/residents a chance to “pay forward” with service to a needy community while gaining a unique primary care training experience working with patients in underserved urban and rural areas.
SEARCH helps students/residents:
- Improve ambulatory care clinical skills
- Work with patients from a diversity of cultures
- Serve as a valued member of an experienced health care team
- Benefit from the mentorship of a dedicated preceptor
Rotations are designed and implemented by State and local organizations, so each one is different. Typically, the SEARCH rotation includes clinical practice and a community service project that gives participants a real taste of community life.
During these rotations, clinicians develop the necessary skills and gain exposure to practicing in rural, frontier and urban Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs).
Placement sites include:
- Community Health Centers
- Homeless Health Centers
- Private practice community health care clinics located in HPSAs that have posted a sliding fee
Medical disciplines accepted for a SEARCH rotation include:
- Allopathic and Osteopathic Medicine
- Family Medicine
- General Internal Medicine
- General Pediatrics
- Obstetrics/Gynecology
- Psychiatry
- Dentistry and Dental Hygiene
- Clinical Psychology
- Clinical Social Work
- Psychiatric Nursing
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Family/Primary Care Nurse Practitioners
- Primary Care Physician Assistant
- Certified Nurse-Midwifery
- Application Form
Student Projects Information - Community Health Center Locations
- National SEARCH Program – sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration
- National Health Service Corps
- National Association of Community Health Centers – Membership is free for health professional students. Benefits include advocacy, trainings, employment opportunities, networking, leadership experience, and much more!
Tip of the week: Time management tricks for coordinators
Even with the stress of holidays behind us, there’s little rest for coordinators. Although the winter doldrums may make it may be tempting to take a mental holiday from all your work, coordinators need to stay on task to wrap up recruitment and get the ball rolling on orientation.
Block out an hour to create a calendar outlining major responsibilities for 2011. A calendar to refer to helps guarantee that you’re not missing anything. If details overwhelm you, write general descriptions of tasks on the calendar, such as “recruitment” or “graduation.” If you like details, list as many to-do items as you want on your calendar. Develop timelines by expanding the to-do list for major responsibilities noted on your calendar. Work backward from the due date and set mini deadlines.
If you collaborate with others on these jobs, assign each person tasks and deadlines; indicate them on the timeline. Meet with stakeholders to get progress reports and update the timeline accordingly. As with your calendar, once you’ve created your timeline, use it year after year, modifying as you go.
This week’s tip is from Residency Program Alert.
Preceptor/Mentoring Information and Log-In (coming soon)
The Teaching Physician Newsletter
Source: The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine
Pitfalls of Precepting
Source: The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine
Clinical Education: Tips and Tutorials
Source: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Mentoring Assessment: Fellows of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Invitational Think Tank
Source: American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Mentoring Medical Students: A Resident’s Perspective
Source: Resident and Associate Society of the American College of Surgeons
Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Resources:
Translated Health Information in multiple languages:
Medline plus – a service of the U.S. Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health
Vaccine Information in 40 languages:
Immunization Action Coalition – Vaccination information for health care professionals
Cross-Cultural Health Information:
Contains information about cultural beliefs, medical issues and related topics pertinent to the health care of immigrants to Seattle or the US, many of whom are refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the world.
Promoting language and cultural competence to improve the quality of health care for minority, immigrant, and ethnically diverse communities.
Cultural Orientation Resource (COR) Center at the Center for Applied Linguistics
Provides technical assistance for the Department of State/Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) and the Department of Health and Human Services/Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
Utah Health & Human Rights Project (UHHR)
A direct service and advocacy agency that promotes the health, dignity, and self-sufficiency of refugees, asylees, and immigrants who have endured severe human rights abuses, including torture, war-related trauma, and human trafficking. UHHR is guided by profound respect for the dignity and resiliency of our clients.
Article:
Culture fundamentally shapes how individuals make meaning out of illness, suffering, and dying. With increasing diversity in the United States, encounters between patients and physicians of different backgrounds are becoming more common. Thus the risk for cross-cultural misunderstandings surrounding care at the end of life is also increasing. Studies have shown cultural differences in attitudes toward truth telling, life-prolonging technology, and decision-making styles at the end of life. Using 2 case studies of patients, one of an African American couple in the southern United States and the other of a Chinese-American family in Hawaii, we outline some of the major issues involved in cross-cultural care and indicate how the patient, family, and clinician can navigate among differing cultural beliefs, values, and practices. Skilled use of cross-cultural understanding and communication techniques increases the likelihood that both the process and outcomes of care are satisfactory for all involved.
Book:
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman
Online Courses for Improving Cultural Competency, including free continuing education courses:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Think Cultural Health provides cultural competency programs with continuing education credits and other resources to help health care providers better meet the cultural and linguistic needs of a diverse patient population. Free online courses accredited for continuing education credit are available. Think Cultural Health is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health and can be found at https://www.thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/.
Public Health Foundation
Course #1010510 – Unified Health Communication: Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency and Limited English Proficiency (LEP)
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) developed this course to improve patient-provider communication skills by increasing participants’ awareness and knowledge of the three main factors contributing to unified health communication: health literacy, cultural competency, and LEP.
Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights
Caring for Torture Survivors Free Online Course
This is a free, internet-based course for individuals from a variety of backgrounds who want to learn about survivors of torture and refugee trauma. Participants will learn about the health consequences of torture, uprooting, and other human rights violations. Participants will also learn how to approach survivors of torture and related trauma, and recognize clinical signs and symptoms in order to screen, treat, and support individuals at risk.
National Center for Cultural Competence (Georgetown University)
The mission of the National Center for Cultural Competence is to increase the capacity of health care and mental health care programs to design, implement, and evaluate culturally and linguistically competent service delivery systems to address growing diversity, persistent disparities, and to promote health and mental health equity.
The mission of TCNS is to enhance the quality of culturally congruent, competent, and equitable care that results in improved health and well being for people worldwide. The TCNS seeks to provide nurses and other health care professionals with the knowledge base necessary to ensure cultural competence in practice, education, research, and administration. TCN is a theory based humanistic discipline, designed to serve individuals, organizations, communities, and societies. Human care/caring is defined within the context of culture. Culturally competent care can only occur when culture care values are
known and serve as the foundation for meaningful care.
SEARCH Participants:
Utah SEARCH Student Evaluation Form - click here
Utah SEARCH Preceptor Evaluation Form - click here
This program is funded by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration
