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Thinking of developing a new Population and Community Health Clerkship? Here's a quick overview, with details and the forms you'll need below.
Each PCHC should focus on a specific population defined by membership in a social or geographic group that may be useful for learners to consider when providing medical care. Our goal is to help learners see how membership in a community can make it easier or more difficult to be healthy, and how thinking about a community as the unit of care can help them think creatively about community-level and structural solutions.
RESPONSIBILITIES are often shared between several members of each clerkship's team. Ideally, team leadership will include a combination of people that includes all of these characteristics:
a faculty appointment at UMass Chan
connection to a community partner organization working with the population of interest.
ability to demonstrate the real-world use of data to define and understand a population
clinical experience relevant to the population or community
administrative and communication skills
protected time to develop a schedule in advance
protected time to spend with learners during the two weeks in October
time and ability to read and respond to reflective writing during and following the clerkship
knowledge of a community need that could be addressed through service
Each team must have at least one faculty co-lead to oversee development of the two-week schedule, ensure that expectations are met and assignments completed, and to determine student grades.
We encourage teams to identify community-based co-leads, people who work somewhere other than UMass Chan whose professional roles and/or lived experience allows them to contribute unique and valuable insight that will improve our learners' ability to understand, connect with and provide the best care for the population of interest for your team. Ideally, the service project and learning experience will be shaped by community-defined ideas for engagement.
Some teams have student co-leads, who work with team leaders to connect with community partners, identify and plan potential service projects, and develop schedules for the PCHC in October. Paid summer assistantships are available to students who would like to spend 160 hours in June and July helping to develop the schedule and supporting materials for a learning experience in the fall. They would have the opportunity to pre-select into the team without participation in the ranking process, and to take a student co-lead role. Reach out to PCHC leadership in winter or early spring to request a summer student to help you. [Note that students are only allowed payment for one summer RCE, global health or community health project. The PCHC does not currently have a budget for team leaders or student co-leads.]
Student co-leads provide a perspective informed by the relationships they build over the summer. They often aid with social media communication during the clerkship to ensure all team members know where to be and when during the immersion. Students are not expected to develop clerkship schedules without close and consistent academic and/or community faculty involvement and guidance throughout the process. Student co-leads should not be asked to read and respond to reflections or assign grades.
Note that this is a new site, still in development. We welcome feedback at PCHC@umassmed.edu .
Useful forms/links
Useful forms/links
Photo consent form:
Photo Consent Form 2022 -All access version
PhotoConsent_UMassChan22 - SharePoint Access version
Spring/Summer: team description
Spring/Summer: team description
Develop Clerkship Description based on population of interest, confirm teaching team members, and submit to PCHC@umassmed.edu by the end of July. Click on the arrow to the right for further description, and on the blue button for a team description template. **Update: some folks prefer to email me a completed word document instead of filling in the Google form, so I've added both options below. Take your choice.
Begin initial planning of clerkship activities to address learning objectives in syllabus. You'll be able to continue planning through October. There are opportunities to host a medical student through our summer assistantship for aid in designing and scheduling activities - reach out for more info.
FacResourceA_ClerkshipDescription.docxSeptember: small group orientation
September: small group orientation
The September Small Group Orientation Meeting provides an initial opportunity for clerkship leaders and student team members to meet and begin learning about one another.
You'll have a chance to hear what the students hope to learn and what skills and talents they are bringing to the table.
Please share a preliminary schedule if possible, especially if you'll be asking students to attend evening or weekend hours (which is fine but easier if students know in advance.)
You can float ideas for refining any planned service activity and solicit student feedback.
This is also a good time to collect/request any paperwork you may need for onsite activities (CORI checks, required immunizations, etc. )
October: leading a clerkship team
October: leading a clerkship team
Two week field experience: planning and oversight of 30-40 hours/week of activity relevant to interprofessional care of specified population, including educational and service activities, reflective writing and oral presentation development, as described in syllabus.
Faculty are responsible for
Orienting students to the population and hosting organizations on Day One of the clerkship
Reading and responding to each student’s reflection assignments at end of each week and
Serving as a resource for students for data gathering, advocacy information, and introductions to relevant personnel in the service system.
Coordinating the assignment and communication of grades to clerkship administration. Please email two reflection scores for each student on your team to PCHC@umassmed.edu .
November: wrapping up with grading and final responses
November: wrapping up with grading and final responses
You are welcome and encouraged to attend Presentation Day on November 4, as we host peer and community learning sessions with oral presentations as described in syllabus. Sessions are held from 10am-12:00 noon and 1-3pm. If you have a preference for morning or afternoon, let us know in advance at PCHC@umassmed.edu .
Clerkship leaders are expected to
read and respond to students' final reflections in a timely manner and
calculate and submit student grades within two weeks following presentations. REFLECTION scores are due to PCHC@umassmed.edu by November 18 at the very latest. Please provide student names and separate scores for Reflection 1 and Reflection 2 (each max 15 points). The guidance above for responding to reflections includes a scoring rubric to guide the assignment of scores. Narrative feedback should be shared directly with learners.
Want to ask someone who's been part of a successful PCHC in the past? Here's a list of participating faculty from one department on campus. from their internal newsletter.
From the department of Family Medicine and Community Health's Tuesday Talk on Community Health: November, 2021
Population and Community Health Clerkship
Thanks to director Heather-Lyn Haley along with department faculty Suzanne Cashman and Linda Cragin, and the entire planning team for completing the gargantuan effort of the 2021 Population and Community Health Clerkship. All courses stop to facilitate full-time effort by second year medical students and graduate nursing students to explore the interprofessional networks of care that serve the health needs of specific communities or populations. Students are required to write reflections, prepare and present a group presentation and engage in community service-learning relevant to the community issues being studied. It is impossible to acknowledge all of the community-based leaders who make this course possible. We are deeply grateful to our collaborators, including department faculty and residents who contributed to 24 of the 28 experiential learning opportunities:
Accountable Care in the Massachusetts Medicaid Program: An introduction with a Focus on Health Equity (Contributing Faculty: Terry Lindblom, Paul Kirby, Kim Lenz)
Barre Biodome: Expanding Seasonal Access to Fresh Produce and Creating a Community Meditation Space in Barre, MA (Kristina Gracey)
Caring for the Uninsured and Under-Resourced (Jim Ledwith)
Coming Home: Exploring the Challenges of Community Reentry and Health Equity for Criminal Justice Involved Populations (Warren Ferguson, Kate Pivovarova)
Confronting Telehealth Equity on Rural Outer Cape Cod (Andy Lowe)
Elders Climate Action MA/UMass Team (Roger Luckmann)
Examining Racism as a Public Health Crisis (Matilde (Mattie) Castiel)
HIV in Massachusetts: A state’s action plan and two community responses in Worcester and Lawrence (Phil Bolduc, Chris Bositis, Vanessa Carson-Sasso)
Identifying Education & Training Needs Within the Disconnected Youth Population on Martha's Vineyard (Suzanne Cashman)
Improving health and medication literacy among patients with limited English proficiency at the Family Health Center of Worcester (Sara Casey; residents Katherine Price, Robin Christian, Stephanie Eierle and Henry Louis)
Injury prevention IS public health (Worcester DPH and UMMHC Injury Prevention Program (Michael Hirsh)
Introduction to Veterans/Military Health Issues (Linda Cragin, Resident: Ben Eovaldi)
Language Access and Patient Encounters (Lisa Morris)
Living with a Disability (Linda Long-Bellil)
LUV (Listening to Unheard Voices): Making Opioid Interventions More Effective by Humanizing Addiction (Heather-Lyn Haley)
UMMS Dominican Republic Batey Health Initiative (Michele Pugnaire; Global Health Fellows: Satu Salonen and Raulo Colon-Mulero)
Moving Worcester: Meeting Worcester’s Leaders in Physical Activity Promotion (Elizabeth Erban)
Oral Health in Underserved Populations- More important than you think! (Hugh Silk)
Prehospital Care and Disaster Management: Healthcare delivery amidst unprecedented circumstances in the 2020s (Nicholas Hajj)
Providing compassionate care to Worcester’s Homeless Population (Erik Garcia, Stephanie Connors)
See it My Way: The VIPs (Visually Impaired Persons) in Worcester County (Heather-Lyn Haley)
Seeking Refuge During a Pandemic: Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health in Lowell, MA (Emily Ferrara)
Understanding and addressing root causes of vaccine hesitancy among LatinX youth in Lawrence (Linda Cragin)
Worcester Healthy Baby Collaborative (Sara Shields)
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