Community Health Centers: Unrecognized Partners in Health Professions Education

Abstract

Increasing demand for health professionals with training in ambulatory and primary care practice is placing stress on existing training site capacity. Community health centers can serve as model training sites, offering comprehensive multidisciplinary health care services and teaching clinician role models. In this study, 32 Illinois community and migrant health centers and federally qualified health centers were surveyed to assess their involvement with training in the past three years. Thirty centers had offered training to students from many disciplines, with nursing (27 centers) and medicine (24) the most frequent. Most centers had established formal relationships with training institutions but generally had limited involvement with course planning. Continued participation will likely require adequate funding, with some centers also seeking stronger institutional relationships and better integration of community health issues. Educators and policy makers may need to take a more active role in supporting centers, acquiring funds, and other enabling factors.

Training Residents in Community Health Centers: Facilitators and Barriers

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][28][29][30] CHC-FMR affi liations offer one possible solution to this workforce shortage through enhanced teaching and recruitment of residents to underserved areas, [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]44 This study provides a description of the factors that determine a successful affi liation between CHCs and FMRs, and adds to the call for adoption of policies to pave the way for more successful partnerships. 6,16,17,23,32,[48][49][50][51] We found 4 themes that describe the facilitators of and barriers to CHC-FMR affi liations: (1) mission, (2) money, (3) governing institutional barriers and administrative challenges, and (4) quality.…”

“…Such affi liations have existed for more than 20 years; they provide effective training and increase the number of graduates working in safety net health care settings. [33][34][35][36][37][38] Graduates of these programs are 4 times more likely than graduates from nonaffi liated programs to continue to work in CHCs. A recent analysis from the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) Family Medicine Residency Network showed that 80% of graduates from residency programs affi liated with CHCs worked in underserved areas in the year after graduation.…”

“…Successful affi liations have resulted in improved physician recruitment to underserved areas, high residenttraining satisfaction, improved quality of care within CHCs, improved physician-training environments, and enhanced FMR clinical revenue. [34][35][36][37][38][39][43][44][45][46] CHC-FMR affi liations have failed because they lacked a shared mission of education and service, 44 and because they were beset with the challenges of chronic fi nancial instability 39,41,42 and administrative and governance complexity. 39,44,45 The literature on CHC-FMR affi liation is limited to descriptions of individual programs, articles that address issues of fi nancing or workforce, and qualitative reports.…”

“…39,44,45 The literature on CHC-FMR affi liation is limited to descriptions of individual programs, articles that address issues of fi nancing or workforce, and qualitative reports. [34][35][36][37][38][39][41][42][43][44][45][46] There have been no structured qualitative analyses of the CHC-FMR affi liations, and published evidence is insuffi cient to inform CHCs and FMRs in the development of successful partnerships. Accordingly, in the autumn of 2004 the WWAMI Family Medicine Residency Network created a working group to identify the barriers to and facilitators of CHC-FMR affi liations in their region and to determine ways to enhance future partnerships.…”

Shaping the Future of Academic Health Centers: The Potential Contributions of Departments of Family Medicine

“…Communityacademic partnerships have the potential to improve the health of the community, further the service missions of schools, and often provide educational opportunities for both learners and community clinicians. [35][36][37][38][39] The case study by Kaufman and colleagues 40 at the University of New Mexico conveys the enormous potential of effective academic-community partnerships for improving the care of the uninsured while cutting avoidable costs. Like many AHCs, the University of New Mexico has been the major source of care for a large uninsured population spread over a large geographic area.…”