Dept. of Family and Community Medicine featured in Global Family Doctor newsletter
The SMHS Department of Family & Community Medicine has been featured in “Global Family Doctor,” the monthly newsletter of the World Organization of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners/Family Physicians (abbreviated WONCA).
In a brief article on UND’s Targeted Rural Health Education (TRHE) project, Kamille Sherman, MD, FAAFP, co-director of the Family Medicine Clerkship and Rural Opportunities in Medical Education (ROME) program in the Department of Family & Community Medicine, describes the program of student-led writing designed to address health education needs, especially in rural communities.
Describing how TRHE (which is housed in the UND Center for Rural Health) both helps educate communities about health matters at the same time as it improves medical students’ communication skills, Sherman explains how “Most local, rural papers welcome the articles and feature them in the ‘Health’ or ‘Community’ sections. There is no honorarium provided to the student, but the ability to make a difference and raise awareness of a health concern in a community brings some satisfaction to the student and enhances ties of the University of North Dakota SMHS and Center for Rural Health across the region.”
As Sherman adds, these student-penned articles feature a broad range of topics, “ranging from farm safety practices to technology/telehealth enhancing the health of communities. This continues to be promoted to students during their experiences in Family Medicine training and is especially emphasized to students who are completing portions of their training in rural communities across the region.”
The article was published in the April 2019 WONCA newsletter and can be read in full here.
The mission of WONCA is to improve the quality of life of the peoples of the world through defining and promoting its values, including respect for universal human rights and gender equity, and by fostering high standards of care in general practice/family medicine.
