Primary Care Week Community Meet and Greet

Dec 12, 2024

Primary Care Week is an annual event held at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) to highlight the importance of primary care and bring healthcare professionals together to discuss and learn about generalist and interdisciplinary healthcare, particularly its impact on and importance to underserved populations.

UND's event is a sister event to the nationally recognized Primary Care Week, hosted by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA). UND's AMSA chapter, along with the UND Center for Rural Health (CRH), the North Dakota Rural Health Association, and the UND Department of Family and Community Medicine, supported the local events throughout the week.

Community Meet and Greet

One of the most notable events is the Community Meet and Greet. This two-hour event provides healthcare profession students and healthcare organizations in the region and throughout the state, an opportunity to connect. Dani Douri, a student leader of the AMSA, shares the mutual benefits of the event.

"For students, it's an opportunity to form connections that will help them advance in their careers and find opportunities, particularly in rural health," he said. "For organizations, the event provides an opportunity to interact with brilliant, motivated UND students eager to make a difference. They can find applicants who are not just skilled but also committed to community and patient-centered care, thereby creating a workforce invested in the state's well-being."

Positive Growth

The Community Meet and Greet has seen consistent growth over the past few years, needing increased space in the SMHS each year to accommodate a larger crowd. Stacy Kusler, workforce specialist at CRH, says this is a good problem to have.

"The growth we've seen is notably due to increased partnerships with the physical therapy, occupational therapy, and medical lab science programs," shared Kusler. "Our medical student connection continues to be strong, and the added partnerships formed because each of the programs would get asked constantly by employers to come to the classroom to present. Instead of accommodating separate presentations, we included them in the event and then highly encouraged their students to attend. This has significantly increased awareness and attendance."

"We are grateful to all of the faculty and staff at UND for allowing us the opportunity to organize and host Primary Care Week each year. We are also so appreciative of the employers' willingness to travel and attend the event in-person. We recognize that a lot of planning and coordination was needed by them to make the trip to UND," said Kaitlyn Berwald, an AMSA student leader at UND.

"Watching the connection form between current employers actively making an impact in the area, and students being trained to carry out that mission in the future was moving," Berwald said. "There was definitely a sense of excitement in the room among students regarding future employment prospects."