SC AHEC Excellence Awards: Preceptor of the Year

SC AHEC Executive Director Ann Lefebvre and LC AHEC HPS Coordinators Emily Warren and Kim Stephens present Ms. Fludd with the award

The South Carolina AHEC Preceptor of the Year Award recognizes unwavering commitment to health professions students’ clinical education. This award distinguishes an outstanding community-based preceptor serving South Carolina health professions students. Each year, practitioners volunteer to provide hours of clinical education to students from various professions. It is their dedication to the education of the next generation of health professionals that we honor with this award. This year’s Preceptor of the Year is Ms. Darlene Fludd, FNP.

As a student, Ms. Fludd participated in the South Carolina Rural Interdisciplinary Program of Training (SCRIPT) with Lowcountry AHEC, and now she serves as preceptor for their students as well as students from Pee Dee AHEC. Ms. Fludd has been employed at St. James-Santee Family Health Center as a nurse practitioner since 2014 and has been very involved in health professions student training, primarily with nurse practitioner students. Every semester, she willingly and gladly volunteers to take students. She is a very caring and compassionate practitioner, providing a quality learning experience for her students. Likewise, the students thoroughly enjoy working with her. She possesses an unwavering commitment to the health professions students’ clinical education. Ms. Fludd exemplifies the very best in what it means to be an outstanding preceptor.

One of Ms. Fludd’s students explained the impact of her teaching:

As a preceptor, Mrs. Fludd demonstrates an interest and ability to teach, as well as exhibits passion in her practice area. She encourages me to expand my knowledge in rural health care and the community that she is working with. She also encourages me to participate in patient care and ask questions that involves critical thinking skills. As a preceptee, I found very fortunate have Mrs. Fludd as my preceptor.

Thank you, Ms. Fludd, for all of your hard work and dedication!

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...

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 ...

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...

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