{"id":86787,"date":"2013-12-03T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=86787"},"modified":"2013-12-05T09:02:06","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T14:02:06","slug":"health-scholars-contribute-250000-in-volunteer-hours-to-medically-underserved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/12\/health-scholars-contribute-250000-in-volunteer-hours-to-medically-underserved\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Scholars Contribute $250,000 in Volunteer Hours to Medically Underserved"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"UConn's<\/a>
UConn’s Urban Service Track student volunteers have contributed 8,950 hours of health care service to underserved urban populations (Urban Service Track\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From its inception in 2007 through June of this year, UConn\u2019s Urban Service Track<\/a> (UST) student volunteers have contributed 8,950 hours of health care service to Connecticut\u2019s underserved urban populations, according to the Connecticut Area Health Education Center<\/a> (CT AHEC). Known as Urban Health Scholars, student participants are selected through an application process. That service is valued at nearly $250,000, based on yearly state averages of the value of volunteer time.<\/p>\n

The number of volunteer hours put in by the program\u2019s Urban Health Scholars has risen steadily each year, says Petra Clark-Dufner<\/a>, associate director of CT AHEC and co-director of UConn\u2019s Urban Service Track. That figure does not include the value of preceptor time for supervising the scholars, supplies, or administrative support from CT AHEC.<\/p>\n

UST is a two-year curriculum that teaches health-profession students in a variety of professions to work with at-risk populations in urban areas. Each year approximately 50 students from the UConn schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, and social work, as well as Quinnipiac University\u2019s physician assistant program, are accepted into the program.<\/p>\n

These Urban Health Scholars are stationed at health centers right in the community, where they receive hands-on training from primary care providers as well as from core faculty from each participating school. They also run approximately 50 free community outreach events every year for a wide variety of constituents in under-resourced communities. In addition to hosting events ranging from health screenings and dental clinics to nutrition, teen pregnancy prevention, and smoking cessation programs, the scholars give a voice to the underserved by advocating before the legislature in Hartford and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\"UConn's<\/a>
(Urban Service Track\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To date, 148 students have completed the UST program. A survey of 2013 UST graduates indicated that approximately 57 percent feel their future plans include a career working in primary care and providing care to the medically underserved. UST\u2019s value to the community extends far beyond the $250,000 in volunteer hours these students have contributed so far, says community benefits consultant Caron Lanouette.<\/p>\n

\u201cUST students are offering a number of services that are very difficult for those communities to provide themselves,\u201d Lanouette attests. \u201cMany of those communities couldn\u2019t afford to pay for those services, leaving their most vulnerable citizens unserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

That can be potentially even more expensive, she points out. Preventive care and screenings allow health problems to be avoided or caught and treated early, which is much less costly than treating advanced, acute illness.<\/p>\n

UST also benefits those communities in other ways, namely by developing health professionals who are better equipped to serve the state\u2019s at-risk populations. Over and above the basic science and clinical curricula, Urban Health Scholars receive training in cultural and linguistic competency, health policy, advocacy, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents develop cultural literacy as well as clinical skills,\u201d says Dr. David Henderson<\/a>, UConn School of Medicine associate dean for medical student affairs. What\u2019s more, he adds, \u201cthe approach Urban Service Track takes dovetails well with the way adults learn. It is experiential. It involves a great deal of service learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UConn's<\/a>
(Urban Service Track\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An equally important aspect of the experience, according to Henderson, is its interprofessional focus. Medical students, dental students, nurses, pharmacists, and physician\u2019s assistants all work together on community health projects. As a result, they learn to collaborate to provide care that is more comprehensive than any one practitioner can provide alone, he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey work in an environment and in a manner that aligns with the way medical care is supposed to be practiced, rather than the way it actually is practiced,\u201d Henderson says.<\/p>\n

Devra Dang<\/a>, associate clinical professor of pharmacy and co-director of UST sums it up this way: \u201cUConn\u2019s UST program is a dynamic example of a successful academic and community partnership. It is leading the way in creating a pipeline of high-quality health professionals who value interprofessional teamwork and patient-centered care for the urban underserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CT AHEC Network engages more than 6,000 learners state-wide, annually. The CT AHEC Program Office is located at the University of Connecticut Health Center within the School of Medicine\u2019s Department of Public Health and Health Policy (CPHHP). Support for the CT AHEC Network is provided by CPHHP, the School of Medicine, the Connecticut State Legislature, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Information about CT AHEC is available at http:\/\/www.publichealth.uconn.edu\/ct-ahec.html<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Urban Service Track volunteers have contributed nearly 9,000 hours of health care service to the state\u2019s urban poor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":86807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-86787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 11:09:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86787"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86809,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86787\/revisions\/86809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/86807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86787"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=86787"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=86787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}