South Carolina AHEC News & Updates

We know that even through unprecedented times, health professionals still need continuing professional development to maintain certifications and licensure. To continue to be able to offer education to the professionals in their communities, the regional South Carolina AHEC centers quickly began transitioning scheduled continuing professional development programs from in-person events to webinars. Here are some brief highlights: Lowcountry AHEC worked with longtime instructor Francine Muscarella, LMSW, LCSW, to offer her already scheduled courses The Art of Leading and Are You Running Out of Time? as webinars to professionals statewide. The transition allowed a multidisciplinary group of attendees to still participate in learning opportunities without leaving their homes. “Huge thanks and shout out,” remarked one attendee, “to all those involved to take this from an in-person class to transition it on short notice to a webinar.” Likewise, Mid-Carolina AHEC cancelled all in-p

At South Carolina AHEC it is our mission to serve the state to ensure each and every community has the healthcare workforce and access it needs. In times like these, it’s even more important to support our healthcare professionals and the health workforce pipeline and, as the pandemic evolves, we are here for you. Just in the past couple of days we have:  Assisted two universities in meeting requirements of their interprofessional education (IPE) curriculum by providing access to AHEC Scholars online programs Provided information about the Health Careers Program (HCP) modules to the SC Department of Education to list with their health sciences curriculum as they transition to online learning Adjusted student housing needs and protocols and assisted with relocating clinical placements while tracking new policies from many institutions Moved numerous live continuing professional development (CPD) events to webinars to help healthcare professionals maintain access to education

South Carolina AHEC supports the state’s healthcare workforce by offering educational programs to many healthcare professionals. Programs provide knowledge and updated information to healthcare professionals across multiple disciplines so they can provide the best possible care to communities. Our continuing professional development programs identify the educational needs of healthcare professionals and provide programs designed to enhance clinical skills and maintain professional licensure and certifications. Programs are delivered through traditional methods and innovative technologies. In addition to in-person programs hosted throughout the state by the four regional AHEC centers, a large library of online and on-demand education is available via the South Carolina AHEC Learning Portal and AHEC U. Especially during a pandemic, it is imperative that our healthcare workforce is able to maintain their licensure and certifications. As such, we are doing our best to maintai

While the placement of an intravenous line in healthcare is often routine, a practice or facility’s ability  to offer IV therapy to patients provides many benefits to the patient and the practice. To that end, Lowcountry AHEC offered an “Introduction to IV Therapy” continuing professional development course in January to healthcare professionals, including nurses from Methodist Oaks Retirement Community and surgical assistants from Mooresville Oral Surgery. Taught by 2014 SC AHEC Educator of the Year Wilma Rice, MSN, RN, CEN, the course covered best practice guidelines as well as demonstrations. Participants then completed a skills demonstration to assess what they learned. Methodist Oaks Retirement Community is a continuing care retirement community in Orangeburg that provides independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing care. The facility is planning to increase the availability of IV services for the community and will permit IV insertions, maintenance, and treatment

Since 2007, Mid-Carolina AHEC has been an active member of the Upper Midlands Rural Health Network (UMRHN), a 19-member consortium serving Chester, Fairfield and Lancaster counties. UMRHN members began meeting in 2004 in order to formalize their healthcare partnerships within mutual service areas.  Karen Nichols, UMRHN executive director, shares that the network and region “have benefitted in a number of ways from the partnership with Mid-Carolina AHEC.”  Mid-Carolina AHEC works with the UMRHN outreach committee to provide annual continuing education to school nurses and social workers in an effort to improve competencies in managing chronic conditions for school-aged children. The annual workshop provides a central location for nurses in the region to receive training on emerging topics. Particularly in underserved and under-resourced areas, school nurses play a key role in the safety and social support of children who might not receive care anywhere else. Mid-Carolina AHEC provi

In January, more than 40 participants from seven states attended Pee Dee AHEC’s Bal-A-Vis-X two-day training. Bal-A-Vis-X is a series of exercises that improve balance, hearing, vision, and brain/body integration. It focuses on sensory integration, balance, cross body, and mid-line movements to help improve gross and fine motor skills. It can also improve attention and focus in patients and students.   Bill Hubert developed and founded Bal-A-Vis-X more than 20 years ago. He travels across the United States providing trainings to occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech pathologists, counselors, social workers, athletic trainers, teachers, and more. Bill uses tools such as balance boards, sand-filled bags, and racquetballs in a series of over 300 exercises. These materials and exercises are used to promote and develop balance, rhythm, focus, and movement. Occupational therapist Angela Morph has attended this training multiple times and explained the difference it makes i

Upstate AHEC is utilizing a blended education model for a portion of its continuing professional development programming to support training for health professionals. The blended/flipped classroom is beneficial because it allows flexibility and ownership in the learning process. Health professionals are able to complete much of the coursework in their own time, at their own pace, without taking time off work to attend a full day or multiple day training. The flipped classroom also encourages participants to be more accountable for the learning process and allows them to move at their own pace as needed. By blending a hands-on lab training with the lecture, participants are able to apply the skills learned in the online lecture under the in-person guidance of their instructor. This reinforces the skills learned and allows the learner to put the new knowledge into practice. Prisma Health Lila Doyle nursing home, AnMed Health Rehab, and the Greenville County Detention Center in the Upst

The South Carolina AHEC Scholars Program seeks to encourage and prepare tomorrow’s health professionals to become leaders in interprofessional, transformative practice for rural and underserved areas. The program, now in its second year, recently welcomed its latest Scholars with a statewide orientation. South Carolina AHEC Health Professions Student (HPS) coordinators from all four regional centers hosted the students in-person in Charleston and Columbia as well as online, using videoconference technology to connect the groups. New Scholars in attendance highlighted the program’s interprofessional and inter-institutional focus: of the 18 students in attendance, they represented six professions (MD, nurse practitioner, PharmD, physical therapy, physician assistant, and social work) and two academic institutions (MUSC and UofSC). Scholars were engaged and excited to be a part of the program. Katherine Olsen, a UofSC PharmD student elaborated: “I feel that the AHEC Scholar

Mid-Carolina AHEC’s Health Careers Program (HCP) is proud to announce a continued partnership with Prisma Health Richland. Recently, Mid-Carolina AHEC HCP students had the chance to participate in a reality-based education program that introduces adolescents to the Level 1 Trauma Center through Project READY, Prisma Health Richland’s community outreach program. Lara Peck, program coordinator for Project READY, begins the session with a presentation explaining various behaviors that lead to traumatic injury. The presentation included a brief anatomy lesson of various body parts, such as the brain and spinal cord, that might be impacted in a trauma event. Students also met a presenter who experienced a traumatic injury as a child, leaving her lower body paralyzed. The presenter shared her story about her accident and experience as a patient and gave the students the opportunity to ask questions about her experience and how she lives her daily life.   Later students were able to ta

In 2002, Stacey Price was a medical laboratory technician seeking to advance her career by pursuing a Bachelor of Science in health science at the Medical University of South Carolina. As a health professions student, she participated in Lowcountry AHEC’s South Carolina Rural Interprofessional Program of Training (SCRIPT). Fast forward to 2020 and Stacey is working with Lowcountry AHEC, teaching health professionals phlebotomy as well as volunteering to share her knowledge and experience in clinical laboratory science with high schools students in the Health Careers Program. She is a positive role model and partner for AHEC stating, “Lowcountry AHEC and the SCRIPT program enriched my knowledge while encouraging me to share my skills within my rural community.” It is people like Stacey that make our AHEC pipeline work! To find out more about Lowcountry AHEC's programming, please visit their website .

Upstate AHEC Continuing Professional Development Coordinator Lauren Taylor with Mental Health First Aid Instructors Krissi Raines and Brittany Alga Mental Health First Aid  (MHFA) is a globally recognized program that originated in Australia in 2001. Participants can become certified in youth or adult MHFA through an eight-hour course in which they learn skills to help someone with a mental illness or someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis. Trained first-aiders are then able to use skills and techniques learned during the training to provide aid to someone in need until appropriate professional treatment and support can be arranged. Adults spend roughly a third of their adult lives working, and having employees complete a program like MHFA can be essential in creating a mentally healthy workplace in which individuals feel valued, supported and respected. Many workplaces have an automated external defibrillator (AED) and have trained their staff on how to use it pro

Did you know that nurse practitioners are the fastest growing licensed health profession in South Carolina (Figure 1)? Or that in more than a third of South Carolina counties, the growth of physicians isn’t keeping up with population (Figure 2)? Data such as these are available thanks largely to the South Carolina Office for Healthcare Workforce. The South Carolina Office for Healthcare Workforce, or OWH, is a statewide resource that studies the issues affecting the balance of supply and demand for different types of health professionals in South Carolina. Its mission is to develop accurate, reliable information about the state’s healthcare workforce and to make that information widely available to support planning and policy decisions. It routinely disseminates reports, maps and data briefs , as well as the South Carolina Health Professions Data Book .  The OHW was established in 2009 as a program within the South Carolina AHEC program office in Charleston wit

Lowcountry AHEC partnered with the SC Youth Suicide Prevention Initiative of the Department of Mental Health and held 3 suicide screening continuing education events, reaching approximately 200 participants. In addition, 29 counselors and psychologists were trained as trainers using the Mental Health America of South Carolina curriculum. These trainers used the toolkits to teach and counsel teachers and students. Evaluations show that approximately half of the counselors had used one or more parts of the curriculum successfully. Visit Lowcountry AHEC's website to find out more about their continuing professional development programs.

Mid-Carolina AHEC’s Health Careers Program provided 1,291 hours of academic advising, online modules, mentoring, health careers programs/training and service learning opportunities to 67 students from 18 high schools in the 11-county region.   Participating high school seniors who complete at least 100 hours of programming were eligible to enroll in the Certified Nurse Assistant Training Program (CNATP).   Since 2013, 27 HCP students have completed the CNATP and worked in healthcare while completing their undergraduate degree. Visit Mid-Carolina AHEC's website to find out more about their Health Careers Program.