Skip to main content

National Health Service Corps: Lessons from the Field

On October 9, health professions students from across the state are invited to attend South Carolina’s recognition of “Corps Community Day” as part of the annual National Primary Care Week. This program will provide information about the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), which exists to increase access to primary care where it is needed most.  The NHSC is a federal program that provides scholarships or repays the educational loans of health care providers who agree to serve a minimum of two years in a federally designated health professional shortage area. Mark Jordan, Director of the South Carolina Office of Primary Care, will provide an overview of the NHSC including scholarship and loan repayment opportunities. Sean Boynes, DMD, and David Garr, MD, will discuss the benefits, working environment, and experiences available through the NHSC.

The South Carolina AHEC, the South Carolina Office of Rural Health and the South Carolina Primary Health Care Association are sponsoring the program. The event will take place at MUSC in Room 202 of the Basic Science Building, and lunch will be provided to registered attendees.  Students from USC, USC School of Medicine - Greenville, and the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine - Carolinas Campus are invited to participate via videoconference.

To register, please contact Kristin Cochran at 843-792-6977 or cochrak@musc.edu

Popular posts from this blog

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 elementar...

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...

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...