Student/Resident Experiences & Rotations in Community Health Program SEARCH (SEARCH)
SEARCH (Student/Resident Experiences And Rotations in Community Health) is a program that helps to establish links between the academic institutions and communities to better prepare students and residents in the fields of medicine, nursing, social work, physician assistant, psychology, and dentistry for primary care delivery in health professional shortage areas. This “service-learning” approach to health professional education will combine community service and clinical experiences with explicit learning objectives, preparation, and reflection.
Purpose
SEARCH provides health profession students an opportunity to experience first hand what it is like to live and practice in rural and underserved areas. They quickly see the quality of services that are available at these facilities and the relationships that are established with their patients. Rural training programs can greatly enhance recruitment and retention by preparing students and residents for the realities of rural practice, increasing their clinical competence, and socializing them to rural communities. Often rural practices provide more community-oriented care using an integrated team approach thereby developing a special relationship between rural providers and patients. The SEARCH program has clearly had an educational function with the students by increasing students’ positive image of practitioners within their chosen professions, increasing their level of confidence regarding some professional tasks and abilities, and was perceived as a very positive experience by the students and preceptors.
History
The SEARCH project has been funded since 1998; however this interdisciplinary program has been operational at the Center for Rural Health since 1995 under the Fellowship of Primary Health Care Professionals Program funded by the same entity.
Partners
The SEARCH program is administered through the Center for Rural Health and partners with the following departments:
