he Anchor program was launched in June 2010 through a partnership between MCAHEC, GA-PCOM, and Houston Healthcare to address the “weak primary care capacity” in Georgia. The collaboration is a perfect fit for the partners concerned, since they have a common goal: to meet the rural health care needs and to meaningfully and successfully address the shortages of health professionals in Georgia. In order to more successfully recruit primary care providers to underserved communities, the MCAHEC needed to keep students in the region for extended periods of time. This would allow students to make some connections in the community, expose them to regional residency programs, and thus increase their likelihood of returning as licensed primary care physicians. According to Georgia AHECs, this community-based clinical training would provide medical students an opportunity to experience healthcare in a real world setting, and to have a better understanding of the complex needs of underserved communities. Such strategic thinking encouraged Georgia AHECs to develop the Anchor program.

The Anchor program provides community based clinical training opportunities to students for a longer period of time in Warner Robins. During their stay in the region, the participating students are required to complete seven core clerkships, three electives, a clinical skills class, and an additional Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine class. The program provides students opportunities to connect with the community, network with the medical professionals, and to experience and work in the culture of diverse populations in southeast Georgia.

roviding service-learning opportunities for students in health care professions may be one way to help alleviate the problem of a shortage of healthcare professionals in rural areas. More important, these opportunities would also provide critically needed services to the underserved populations in rural Georgia, such as the migrant and seasonal farm workers. These men and women face significant challenges to accessing health care due to the difficult nature of their work, their poverty and mobility, and their challenging living arrangements. In order to provide clinical services to these farm workers with the help of various health professions students, MCAHEC coordinates several farm clinics in Candler, Tattnall and Toombs counties in southeast Georgia during the spring and summer. These clinics are implemented in partnership with East Georgia Healthcare Center’s Farmworker Health Program and Southeast Georgia Communities Project.

These clinics offer the target population increased access to health resources through health screening services and health education. They bring health providers, employers and policymakers together to create positive changes in the lives of the migrant population. The program also focuses on the health profession students’ perceptions about working with migrant farm workers, their intent to work in a rural area, and, finally, their experience working through interpreters, which furthers the cultural competency of the attending health profession students.

Moreover, the clinics give students hands-on clinical experience and provide inspiration, direction, and vision necessary to build stronger, healthier communities, and, most of all, to give the cultural awareness which would help them understand migrant needs.