Community Medicine Rotation Overview

Community Medicine Rotation

• Four half days of occupational medicine should be scheduled in Dr. Paul Darby's office in Tacoma and/or the UW Occupational and Environmental Medicine clinic on Jefferson and Broadway.  The UW clinic is only open Monday through Wednesday 1pm to 5pm and Friday morning 8:30am to 12:30pm.  It is an academic office with lots of teaching, time, and fellows.  Patients are from all over the area and engaged in all kinds of occupations.  The Tacoma clinic" --here you can start up with the next sentence that's already there "patients include sailors in port, etc. etc..

• Half day spent with Heather Barr, a public health nurse from the Health Care of the Homeless project.  She will take you on a fascinating tour of notorious downtown service sites, introduce you to many homeless individuals and their options for housing, leadership and politics.  Heather Barr can be contacted at:  206-296-4599.  It's best to call Heather early, since her schedule is limited and it often takes several tries to reach her.

• A set of six questions will be sent to the resident by e-mail on the first day of the rotation.  The questions will be covering a wide range of community medicine topics that can come up in your office practice on any given day.  You will need to research these and write up short answers. Some can be done by using internet resources.  Others may be best handled by talking to local public health department experts.  These should be completed by the end of the rotation.

• Attend the monthly Board of Health meeting in Seattle.  You can find out when and where this is happening on the website: http://www.metrokc.gov/health/boh/.  Typically, the meeting is the third Friday of each month.

• Attend a second meeting of your choice, where issues of some relevance to public health are being addressed.  These meetings can also serve as forums for addressing such issues in the future.  Examples include School Board, city council, local neighborhood council, etc.  

• Brief (5-10 minute) presentation,  to be given at the first community medicine didactic following completion of the community medicine block.  This should take the form of an argument or presentation designed to convince a designated agency or organization to change policy regarding a public health issue of your choosing.  Imagine, for example, that you are asking the Board of Health to allow private physician offices to prescribe methadone to heroin addicts, asking the school board to take pop machines out of the schools, or perhaps asking your community organization to try to keep a McDonald's from going up next door to the junior high school.  This exercise is designed to help you polish your skills at lobbying or advocating for issues that your believe are of public health significance.  The presentation to the group also gives you a chance to educate your colleagues about that issue.  Two websites that might be useful include:                                               http://ctb.lsi.ukans.edu/tools/EN/sub_section_main_1248.htm             http://www.ieeeusa.org/forum/guide/index.html

• Meet with the community medicine faculty chair weekly, in person or by phone, to discuss the questions you are working on or to talk about community medicine issues of current interest and importance.  Please set those meetings up at the beginning of the block.

• Please see the reading list for the community medicine resources.  Our expectation is that you check out each one and become familiar with them as possible resources to refer to later as needed.  The Public Heath Department's website has a lot of interesting and useful information: http://www.metrokc.gov/health/datawatch/index.htm

• Presentation skills training

• Media skills training

• Lobbying training

• Didactic lectures on various community medicine topics throughout the academic year

• Ongoing training at the resident’s continuity clinic in preventive medicine, health promotion, disability evaluation, and utilization of community resources

• Faculty review of case-based problems

• Report on public health or community meeting attendance

• Media presentation (article, press release, interview preparation, etc.)

• Report on advocacy activity (meeting or other communication with public official, testimony at a hearing, etc.)

Residents are required to contact the Community Medicine Faculty Advisor, Dr. Maureen Brown, at least two weeks in advance of starting their rotation. Dr. Brown will inform the resident about required meetings and scheduling of activities and tutorials, and will provide resident with a packet of materials for the rotation.

Please contact the curriculum faculty chair if you have any questions about this rotation, or if you are running into problems.  There is quite a lot of time that is unscheduled.  Please try to use this time to work on the questions and on your presentation.  Your feedback at the end of the month on what was worthwhile and what was not, will be much appreciated!

During the Community Medicine rotation (R2 year), residents will be in their continuity clinics a maximum of 4 half-days per week, and will attend didactics on Tuesday afternoons. Community Medicine activities will be scheduled with Dr. Brown in advance of and during the rotation

Goals and Objectives (back to top)

• To develop the skills necessary to conduct occupational, environmental, and population-based health assessments;

• To foster an awareness of and appreciation for the many local public and private organizations working toward a common goal of improving the health of the community;

• To broaden residents’ perspectives regarding the impact of public health, preventive health, and legislative measures on their patients’ health and well being;

• To develop the leadership skills, organizational abilities, and communication skills essential to serving as an effective voice for our communities outside the doctor-patient relationship.

• Identify, research and problem solve 10 issues related to public health, preventive health, and health advocacy;

• Identify and utilize key informational resources for public and community health;

• Define and identify the major components of public health (including occupational health, environmental health, school health, public safety, housing policy, transportation) and population health (including communicable diseases, prevention, and epidemiology);

• Conduct occupational medicine assessments, including disability, employee health, and job-related injury and illness evaluations;

• List community health resources that may be utilized in the care of patients and their families, including school health services and public health services;

• Discuss disease prevention/health promotion, including appropriate strategies and behaviors such as immunizations and healthful lifestyle changes that will protect children, adults, and families from illness or injury;

• Prepare and deliver an effective presentation for use in settings such as Board of Public Health meetings, legislative hearings, community meetings, and other public forums;

• Interface effectively with various types of media, including newspaper, radio and television;

• Serve on the board of a community organization.