“ There is a lot of beauty in this community if you look for it. It is important as doctors to be integrated into the community to be part of its value.”
THIRD ANNUAL
RESIDENTS’ JOINT INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY HEALTH ROTATION
Now in its third year of presentation, this rotation is one of the signature courses within the CDU residency program. Between June 25th-July 22nd, a series of seminars, training, community outreach visits, and the Substance Abuse Disorder Institute were offered. Participants included Family Medicine and Psychiatry interns, Physician Assistant students, Family Medicine senior residents, CDU / UCLA medical students; CDU staff and faculty, as well as nationally and internationally affiliated presenters, and session facilitators.
As developed in conjunction with the COM GME program, this event stresses innovation. The training is community oriented and presented from a social justice and antiracism perspective. It is the only program of its kind in the country that requires residents in training specializations to participate.
The scope of training for this event included a series of virtual lectures and presentations based on the CDU Advantage pillars; PASS Step 3 training, an introduction to medical specialties, and clinical site orientation. Social medicine was a key focus as the field that seeks to understand how socioeconomic conditions affect health and the practice of medicine to foster conditions leading to a healthier society.
A wide variety of speakers led and participated in the assembled seminars, panels, and the HRSA-sponsored Substance Abuse Disorder Institute. Notables included Dr. Camara Jones, Senior Fellow at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine, and Dr. Richard Allen Williams of the UCLA School of Medicine.
Resident Quote:
“ There is a lot of beauty in this community if you look for it. It is important as doctors to be integrated into the community to be part of its value.”
Because of its interdisciplinary focus, the course had impact on a wider variety disciplines beyond the medical residencies. Training components emphasized the five CDU Advantage pillars, with the fifth pillar split into Excellence in Specialized Knowledge and Research, and Research and Specialized Knowledge.
Keynote among the instructional faculty was Provost Steven Michael, who originally coined the CDU Advantage concept. According to COM Assistant Dean Lisa Barkley, Dr. Michael’ s presence was a key factor toward interjecting the proper context for the entire event.“ He actually came back twice because he has so much to talk about,” she noted.
Subtopics within the training built upon the component of each pillar. The Social Justice seminar led by COM Dean Deborah Prothrow-Stith featured a discussion of strategies on how to manage one’ s emotions to advance social justice causes. The Global / International programs pillar featured a seminar that highlighted the problems associated with intimate partner violence, as well as the incidence of COVID-19 across international borders.
The Health Policy pillar, presented by President David Carlisle, focused on how state and local policy decisions impact CDU. Community and Experiential Education featured a panel of community faculty members that gave attendees a glimpse at their vital role. An exercise in community asset mapping led by Drs. Barkley and Adina Hicks offered training participants greater understanding of how families struggle on a budget as low as $ 400 per month to stretch resources while maintaining healthy lives.
The Excellence in Research section offered a variety of outcomes, that included offering seminar participants the opportunity to meet researchers who talked about their work, as well as to understand the kind of research endeavors important in a community such as SPA 6; and the types of questions to ask during research the data collection process was also covered.
CDU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE | PG. 10