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Simulation Training Prepares Students for Rural Primary Care

Since its inception in 2021, South Carolina AHEC’s Simulation Education Training (SET) has remained a favorite experience amongst health professions students statewide. Pee Dee AHEC Scholars and other health professions students pose for the camera during a simulation Since its inception in 2021, South Carolina AHEC’s Simulation Education Training (SET) has remained a favorite experience amongst health professions students statewide. SET uses simulation-based technology to expose students to clinical environments and scenarios that mirror what providers experience in rural, medically-underserved communities. “A lot of simulations are emergent or hospital-based and students are usually being graded as a formal assessment when they participate,” said SC AHEC Curriculum Coordinator Dawn Leberknight, who was heavily involved in the development of the initiative. “We tried to make [SET] more informal to expose students to simulations before it’s high stakes, and then to really focus on rura
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Marchek Siblings Stay Connected With Upstate AHEC Through Academic Journey

 A pair of siblings from Greer are giving back to current Upstate AHEC Health Careers students after completing the program themselves. Alex Marchek, MD is in his first year as a family medicine resident at Prisma Health Seneca. His younger sister by two years, Anna Marchek, is a second-year medical student at Edward Via College of Medicine (VCOM) Carolinas. “My mom likes to say she did good,” Anna joked. “Both of her kids are going to be doctors. She went two-for-two.” Anna (left) and Alex (right) Marchek are pictured with Nita Donald, Executive Director of Upstate AHEC. While Alex and Anna have both chosen to pursue medicine as a career, their interest in healthcare developed differently. Alex describes his discovery of health sciences as a slow realization. “It was definitely something that was on my radar really young,” said Alex. “My parents will say when I was six years old, I was talking about doing something in medicine. I had some really great science teachers in elementary, m
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Pee Dee AHEC Clinical Placements Help Students See Challenges – and Opportunities – of Rural Primary Care

  Third-year medical student Omar Guerrero didn’t find his passion for a career in healthcare until he began shadowing health professionals as an undergraduate student. “I just knew that I really loved science and working with my hands,” said Guerrero, who double-majored in Public Health and Cellular & Molecular Biology while at the University of South Florida. It all clicked for him once he was able to observe physicians in their encounters with patients. “I saw there was a real need for Spanish-speaking physicians,” said Guerrero. “There’s a lot of disconnect between providers and Spanish-speaking patients and I thought that was definitely an area that I could make a difference in.” Now in his third year at A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona, Guerrero is doing a clinical placement at Beaufort-Jasper-Hampton Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. in Richland. Guerrero was connected with Pee Dee AHEC and their Health Professions Student (HPS) program wh
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Mid-Carolina AHEC Supports High School Students on the Path to Health Careers

High school students from across the Midlands have benefitted from an expansion in programming in Mid-Carolina AHEC’s Health Career Academy (HCA) . The HCA focusses on creating an exploration experience for students through grade-specific programming to promote academic success, career development and personal growth.  Mid-Carolina AHEC’s growth in its HCA is due in part to the hiring of an additional coordinator, made possible by the increase in state funds appropriated to South Carolina AHEC for fiscal year 2023. All four regional AHEC centers were able to grow to two coordinators supporting their Health Careers Programs (HCP) and start expanding the reach within their regions. With the additional support, Mid-Carolina AHEC’s HCP coordinators, Whitney Amaker and Taylor Rice, can reach more schools and students in the 11 counties their center covers. “The HCA has expanded over the last few years to many different counties such as York, Lancaster and Chester,” said Mid-Carolina AHEC HC
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Students Gain Valuable Experience in the Lowcountry AHEC Summer Internship Program

Nine high school and college students who completed the Lowcountry AHEC Summer Internship Program gathered last August to give presentations and discuss their experiences in a closing ceremony at the Lowcountry AHEC facility in Walterboro. Family and friends of participants were invited to attend and celebrate their accomplishments, while learning more about the different opportunities each student had during their summer internships. The Lowcountry AHEC Summer Internship Program is offered to graduating high school seniors and college students interested in a health career. Accepted students are placed at a healthcare facility in the Lowcountry AHEC region and are required to complete 40 hours of work or observation, attend virtual and in-person meetings with their AHEC program coordinators and then prepare a presentation on their summer experience at the conclusion of their internship.  “The Summer Internship Program is an important piece of our Health Careers Program,” said Diane M
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Maternal and Infant Health Module Sprout Available on AHEC Learning Portal

  In an effort to help improve maternal and infant health outcomes in South Carolina, SC AHEC has developed a new educational module titled Sprout , which serves as a collection of information, tools and resources available in the state to support healthy mothers and babies. The module, created in partnership with the SC Office of Rural Health’s (SCORH) Family Solutions and March of Dimes of SC , can be found on the AHEC Learning Portal at www.scahec.net/learn/sprout .     Sprout is an expansion from SC AHEC’s routine educational programming, as the module is targeted toward community members instead of health professionals. To make sure information is reaching all members of the public, the program simplifies or defines many terms that are used commonly in healthcare and is written in plain language that non-healthcare professionals can easily understand.    “The goal is for any resident of South Carolina who is interested in supporting healthy moms and babies in their own community
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South Carolina AHEC Receives Funding to Establish Dedicated Nursing Workforce Unit within the SC Office for Healthcare Workforce

South Carolina AHEC received a $500,000 increase in recurring state funds for the 2023-2024 state budget to establish a dedicated nursing workforce unit as part of the South Carolina Office for Healthcare Workforce (SCOHW), a division of South Carolina AHEC.  With 58,318 actively practicing registered nurses, advanced practice registered nurses, and licensed practical nurses in South Carolina as of 2020, the nurse workforce is the largest licensed health profession in the state, more than four times larger than the next biggest licensed health profession. Because of the size, complexity, and importance of the nursing workforce – a linchpin of the healthcare system – the new research unit will study the particular issues that affect the balance of supply and demand for nurses in South Carolina.  However, SCOHW will not be embarking on this work alone. The research unit will work with nursing education programs, nurse employers, practicing nurses, community partners and other stakeholder
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