TERRE HAUTE —
Five students recently completed service with the Rural Health Innovation Collaborative as spring 2012 RHIC Scholars.
This first class of scholars was chosen to assist the collaborative in its ongoing development of inter-professional education to help current and future professionals better utilize the team approach to health care. The students were nominated by their individual institutions because of their success in their programs and knowledge of their subject area.
The RHIC Scholars were:
• Milissa Eley-Alfrey, Winchester, Indiana University School of Medicine
• Megan Dunford, Farmersburg, post-graduate pharmacy resident, Union Hospital
Dunford, the daughter of Darren and Missy Dunford, graduated from North Central High School in Farmersburg. She earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Butler University in May 2011 and is a licensed pharmacist. She is completing a one year post-graduate residency at Union Hospital and plans to be a clinical pharmacist at the hospital. In this role, she will work with future Doctor of Pharmacy students and work closely with students in the hospital’s family practice medical residency program.
• Alexa Larkin, Fort Wayne, communication, Indiana State University
• Christina Mills, Carlisle, respiratory care, Ivy Tech Community College-Wabash Valley
Mills, the daughter of William and Anita Mills, graduated from Sullivan High School and Vincennes University. In May she graduated from Ivy Tech Community College – Wabash Valley with an associate degree in respiratory care. She works at Regional Hospital as a student therapist and tutors respiratory care students at Ivy Tech. Her next educational goal is to pursue a bachelor’s degree in respiratory care from IUPUI.
• Gage Thoma, Georgetown, Ill., physician assistant studies, Indiana State University.
A Healthy People 2020 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services enabled the RHIC to award the scholarships. The four health care students participated in a non-credit, four-week pilot course for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using an interdisciplinary model. The pilot course was conducted via Blackboard, an online platform, and is part of an action plan by the RHIC to develop a full-semester inter-professional education course for health care students that will be for credit and available to all of the collaborative’s educational partners. The communication student learned how interdisciplinary health care training works and how to market its benefits.
The RHIC will select another group of scholars this fall to refine the interdisciplinary curriculum. Next semester’s class is expected to include a nutrition student and social work student in addition to the health care disciplines represented by the Spring 2012 Scholars.
Dr. James Buechler, director emeritus of the Richard G. Lugar Center for Rural Health and author of the pilot case study, said the students had great insights.
“It is exciting to think that we at the RHIC have completed what to our knowledge is the first online, multi-institutional pilot project on inter-professional education ever done,” Buechler said.
Established in December 2008 and incorporated in December 2009, the RHIC has found inter-professional education to an effective approach to addressing healthcare shortages in Indiana and one which works especially well for rural areas that are medically underserved. The inter-professional model ensures that future doctors train with nurses, therapists and other technicians to make decisions about a patient’s treatment and to achieve better patient care. The collaborative opened a simulation center at Union Hospital in April 2011 to facilitate inter-professional training in the health care field.
The partners in the Rural Health Innovation Collaborative now number 10. Other partners, in addition to those represented by the spring 2012 RHIC Scholars are the city of Terre Haute, the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation, Vermillion Parke Community Health Center, Hamilton Center, Indiana Rural Health Association and Indiana Area Health Education Center.
Schools
Five complete service as RHIC Scholars
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