Students working in teams of 2-3 will employ a community-oriented primary care (COPC) approach in conducting their scholarly activities. COPC is “the practice of primary care with population responsibility, oriented to health improvement of a defined community served by the health service, with the progressive participation of the community and in coordination with all services involved with the health of the community or its determinants.1”
NW HERON will assign students to work with a site preceptor at a partner primary care clinic with experience in delivering health care services to rural, Tribal, or urban underserved communities, including populations that experience significant health disparities, have low socio-economic status, or reside in federally designated health professional shortage or medically underserved areas. Students will have the opportunity to shadow a leader in primary care and take part in a curriculum that integrates community-oriented primary care, leadership, health disparities, American Indian health, rural health, and research methods modules. In addition, students will address learning objectives through literature reviews, public datasets, clinic data if available, and key informant interviews/focus groups with various stakeholders.
Learning Objectives
- Describe (define and characterize) the population served by the primary care clinic
- Describe priorities identified by the primary care clinic (e.g., integration of primary care and behavioral health, COVID-19), local critical access hospital (e.g., community health improvement plan), or local health department
- Describe/recommend evidence-based intervention(s) to address the priority from clinical and population health perspectives
- Describe initiatives undertaken to evaluate intervention or recommend evaluation of intervention effectiveness
- Assess the specific role of primary care in the health care system with regard to factors that facilitate or prevent public health actions at the community level
- Identify and assess opportunities and challenges encountered in the application of a community orientation in health service delivery
- Describe how the organization works with stakeholders to improve population health in the delivery area
- Describe the organization’s patient/constituent focus and the integration of constituents’ (patients, families, providers, other stakeholders) perspectives in the delivery of health services
- Develop executive summary and present results from findings
- Complete 320 hours of associated scholarly project research, including meetings, conference calls, site visits, research, peer-to peer mentoring, and report writing
1Foz G, Gofin J, Montaner I. Atencion primaria orientada a la comunidad: Una vision actual. In: Martin Zurro A, Cano Perez JF, ed. Atencion primaria - conceptos, organizacio y practica clinica. 6th ed. Madrid, Spain,: Elsevier; 2008:345-366.