Center for Rural Health Targeted Rural Health Education project publishes latest student articles
Debuting in 2017, the UND Center for Rural Health’s (CRH) Targeted Rural Health Education (TRHE) program charges medical students and other School of Medicine & Health Sciences students with writing a plain language health information article to be published in a rural newspaper where students are completing their rotation. The project encourages and supports those students to dive deeper into the health issues facing the communities they’re serving and provide information on those issues or specific preventable health conditions.
Third-year medical student Blair Stewig, a Rural Opportunities in Medical Education (ROME) student stationed at Unity Medical Center in Grafton, N.D., is the latest student to see her writing published.
This week, the Walsh County Record published the second of Stewig’s two recent articles “Invisible harm: Radon exposure can lead to lung cancer,” which alerts readers to the prevalence of radon in North Dakota and the connection between radon, cigarette smoking, and cancer.
Stewig’s first story, “Pink with Purpose: Breast Cancer Prevention and Early Detection,” ran in the Grafton and Park River newspapers late last year. She was actually contacted by the North Dakota Tobacco Prevention and Control Program about writing the radon story as a direct result of her (earlier) breast cancer article.
The TRHE program is the brainchild of David Schmitz, M.D., Chair the SMHS Department of Family and Community Medicine, and is supported by the UND Center for Rural Health and the North Dakota Rural Health Association.
Kay Miller Temple, M.D., a writer for the CRH Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub), serves as the writing advisor for the project.
“Once invited to write a specific article, Blair asked for assistance with writing that story,” said Temple, who met with CRH Workforce Specialist Stacy Kusler and Kara Backer of the North Dakota Tobacco Prevention and Control Program about writing the proposed article. “We agreed that I’d advise Blair on the writing, and the tobacco quitting leaders would provide the expert review of the final story and connect with the area newspaper editors regarding publication.”
Which Stewig and Backer did, to great success.
Excellent work, everyone!
