Caring for a Community
Program Features
An Overview
The program provides an overview of the current United States health care system that identifies some of its major deficiencies. This understanding will help explain the value and rationale for a different approach to effectively caring for a community.
An In-Depth Review
Students receive an in-depth review of the Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) approach to health care delivery. The elements of COPC (a defined community, public health principles, and primary care practices) will be presented, defined and illustrated through actual stories from a real community.
An Opportunity to Experience
Learners will experience the actual process for doing COPC in a community. Learners study key points in the COPC process and compare COPC to “population medicine,” which has been successfully practiced by some managed care organizations.
A Virtual Community
The program presents a “virtual” community where learners can study the process and practice of COPC, at a convenient time in their schedules. It is always accessible, allows them to work at their own pace and participate in the full process of community oriented primary care (needs assessment, prioritization, intervention, and evaluation).
A Focus on Group Needs
Learners will study the health needs of various age groups (Perinatal, Pediatric, Adolescent, Adult or Geriatric) in this community, accessing both quantitative and qualitative information through mock interviews, health reports, internet sites, and hospital data.
Intervention Strategies and Results
The learner must correctly identify the five major health problems for that age group (life cycle) before progressing in the program. Later phases of the program include prioritizing at a community meeting, choosing one or two interventions to work on, and discovering the results of the interventions selected.
Proof of Completion
For faculty, a hidden administrative program will track the learners’ progress to verify program completion.