Community Based Clinical Training
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elcome to the Magnolia Coastlands Area Health Education Center (MCAHEC) region. Our goal is to help you gain fulfilling educational experiences by providing community-based learning opportunities and clinical experiences within the rural and urban underserved communities of southeast Georgia. Community-based training will give you a unique opportunity to experience health care in a real world setting and interact one-on-one with your future patient population in community health centers, county health departments, local practitioners’ offices and many other community primary care sites. Current research has shown that health care professions students who have participated in these experiences have a better understanding of the complex needs of underserved communities.
Community Based Clinical Training at Magnolia Coastlands AHEC is arranged by our Preceptor Coordinator, Ashley Paine.
She can be reached at 912-478-1921 or via email at [email protected].
We can offer health care professionals the opportunity to precept health care professions students in clinical rotations. Students benefit from the experience, and the preceptor may benefit from new ideas and techniques currently being taught in the academic health sciences institutions.
Housing Support for Students in Clinical Training
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henever possible, MCAHEC will provide housing to students rotating in our region. Housing is assigned by our Student Support Coordinator, Rachel Kirkland, on a first come, first served basis. Please direct all housing and travel assistance questions to Rachel. She can be contacted via email at [email protected] or by phone at (912) 478-2525. To reserve housing, please email Rachel with the dates of your rotation, city of your rotation, and practice/hospital where you will be rotating. All students will be required to complete a Housing Agreement form, which will be sent by Rachel. If there has been a change to your rotation, please contact us. You will receive an email two weeks prior to your rotation with necessary forms and information. Once we receive your forms, you will be sent an email confirmation of housing with directions and check in contact information. If you are a student who does not require housing, AHEC can assist you in other ways, such as providing travel assistance.
MCAHEC Housing Locations: Savannah, Statesboro, Vidalia and Hinesville.
Hospital Orientation for Students in Clinical Training
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t. Joseph’s/Candler: GRU MD, PCOM, and Mercer students who are doing a clinical rotation at St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System must complete an online orientation prior to the start of the rotation through MCAHEC. Please read over the Orientation Materials and the Medical Student Administrative Policy then sign either the MCG Medical Student Agreement or the PCOM or Mercer Medical Student Agreement AND the Medical Student Record Release.
Then, e-mail these forms to Rachel Kirkland at: [email protected]. These must be completed no later than one week before your rotation.
Housing Support Form:
• MCAHEC Student Profile FormHospital Orientation Clinical Training Forms:
• Orientation Materials• Medical Student Administrative Policy
• MCG Medical Student Agreement
• PCOM or Mercer Medical Student Agreement
• Medical Student Record Release.
Neptune Waste Mang. Training
Clinical Training Programs
Anchor Program
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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.
Farmworker Migrant Clinic
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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.