Population and Community Health Clerkship 2022 Syllabus
The Population and Community Health Clerkship (PCHC) is a team-based, interprofessional, community engaged experience required of all second year medical and graduate nursing students. Students are placed in small groups directed by academic and community preceptors from a range of professions and disciplines. Each team’s experience is unique.
Goal: The overarching goal of the PCHC is to provide relevant real-world context as students expand their understanding of public and population health concepts.
Objectives: In this clerkship, students will:
● Collect, synthesize, and/or explain relevant population-level data
● Identify the interprofessional team members who care for the population
● Explore best practices for advocacy with a population to improve social and structural determinants of health
● Apply knowledge toward meaningful service in a community
Timeline:
August - Review team descriptions in PCHC catalog (received by email 8/15) and rank top 5 preferences online by August 26 at 8am. Details and logistics (e.g. on-site, weekend and/or evening hours) are summarized in the catalog and should be considered before submitting your choice. There is no benefit to early submission - take your time in ranking!
September - Didactic sessions:
o Sept 22, 8:30-9:30: Advocacy w Alexis Walls Virtual Event + Video Recording + Presentation
o Sept 27, 8:30-9:30am: Putting the PCHC in Context: Logistics, expectations and assignments, IRB considerations. Drs. Haley, Terrien, and Blodgett, followed by
o Sept 27, 9:45-10:45am: one-hour small group orientation with PCHC team leaders; review/submit any required documentation to your PCHC leader(s) as directed.
October - Two-week field experience Oct 24-Nov 4. Some teams will request evening and/or weekend learning assignments and activities in the community. During this time you will
o Participate fully and display professional behavior throughout the experience. The immersive learning of PCHC mirrors expectations of clinicians regarding attendance, team engagement and professionalism. All PCHC activities are required. Students should not schedule other personal or elective activities during the PCHC and should contact their team leader or a member of the PCHC planning group immediately if there is a potential conflict.
o Complete and submit reflective writing assignments (see details under Assignment menu).
o Complete a service project. Your team leaders will identify one or more service needs that can be addressed during this two-week period. Examples of service projects include developing educational materials, conducting a mini-health assessment, contributing to outreach initiatives, collecting and synthesizing data, and developing advocacy materials and strategies.
o Work with team to prepare a digital and oral presentation.
o November 4: Attend and participate in peer and community learning session with 20-minute oral presentations from each team
o November 4-7: View presentations and provide written feedback to at least two other teams.
Evaluation & Feedback:
Feedback: students will receive written feedback responses to their reflective writing assignments from their small group leaders, and will have opportunities for reflective discussion as a group. All members of a team will receive the peer feedback data for their team's presentation.
Grading: Student grades are submitted on a credit/no credit basis. Students are asked to complete two Independent Learning Modules for 10% each = 20% total. Team leaders assign individual scores for reflection ( 2 submissions at 15% each = 30%). A team-based presentation score (30%) is determined by faculty raters at the presentation. Two required Peer presentation feedback reviews make up the remainder of the score (2@10 = 20%) A combined score of 75 or higher is required to receive credit.
Recommended resources (see resource tab on google website for more updated listing)
⮚Collaboratory Community Engagement Database - please consider adding your community-engaged activities to our database to help us measure impact https://he.cecollaboratory.com/umms
⮚ Worcester Regional Research Bureau almanac of facts and figures about the city of Worcester, reports and resources http://www.wrrb.org/resources-and-related-links/
⮚ Worcester Community Health Improvement Plan/ Community Health Assessment provide access to recent information about our local public health planning processes and community-identified priorities: http://healthycentralma.com/
⮚ Boston Area Research Initiative’s Boston Data Portal includes interactive mapping features https://www.northeastern.edu/csshresearch/bostonarearesearchinitiative/boston-data-portal/
⮚ MA Public Health Association: https://mapublichealth.org/ is a great source of info about advocacy in our state. ⮚ MA Environmental Public Health Toolkit with tracking data: https://matracking.ehs.state.ma.us/
⮚ The Kaiser Family Foundation has launched a new interactive tool for state reports on health coverage, access, and costs. https://www.kff.org/statedata/custom-state-report/
⮚ Centers for Disease Control: Data and Statistics by topic and with links to tools and other resources: https://www.cdc.gov/DataStatistics/
⮚ Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility searchable neighborhood-level data, reports and articles. https://www.opportunityinsights.org
⮚ US Census American Fact Finder is an easy way to get lots of data by zip code, city, state, etc: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml