November 2002 Home

Poll Shows Continued Support for Academic Medicine

NRMP Update: AAMC Seeks to Dismiss Suit; Some Groups Seek Arbitration

Caring for the Underserved: The Art and Science of Community-Based Medicine

Restoring the Balance: Fostering the Medical Education of Native American Students

Physician Novelists: At the Intersection of Writing and Healing

"A Day in the Life of a Medical Student"

Caring for Community

Viewpoint

A Word From the President

Reporter Archive

AAMC Newsroom

Managing Editor Scott Harris sharris@aamc.org Staff Writer Elissa Fuchs efuchs@aamc.org

Caring for Community: Wake Forest Medical Students Organize Health Campaign

Isabel Newton, a fourth-year M.D./Ph.D. student at Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSOM), knows that despite the myriad health promotion and community service initiatives on the part of medical students, change can come slowly in the public health arena.

"Many medical students step out into their communities with bright and shiny ideas hoping to change the world, when in reality the process is much slower than they expect," says Newton.

"Through community health endeavors we may spark an idea in someone, but that may not change the person's high-risk behavior immediately. But the more you bring up certain messages and the more you expose people to concepts of disease prevention and health care, the more you increase the likelihood that they will actually change their unhealthy behaviors and lives," she says.

After realizing that one of their health programs was not having its anticipated impact, Newton and other medical students at WFUSOM decided to add a strategic element to it: a "Health Awareness Campaign." The campaign, to complement a yearly health fair that focuses on health problems affecting minorities, is scheduled to take place in the month prior to the fair, in January 2003.

"During our last fair, we noticed that people weren't always benefiting from the information we had so carefully compiled, and we soon realized that was because of a problem in our approach," says Newton, who is coordinating a public health campaign in Forsyth County, N.C. "At that point, we began to think about other ways to extend the impact of the health fair beyond just the one day in which it takes place. We concluded that what was lacking was a wider, more general campaign to inspire underserved people to become advocates for their health."

The students called on community minority leaders to help develop the campaign, which will attempt to deliver health promotion messages in a culturally sensitive manner. The combined focus of the health fair, titled "Share the Health," and its preceding campaign will be to empower the medically underserved in Forsyth County with the knowledge and motivation to improve their health and access to care.

Strong community support

Healthy Fare: Isabel Newton, M.D./Ph.D. student (l) and Wake Forest medical students hard at work at a 2001 health fair.

"Isabel and I have received a tremendous amount of support from the community," says Melissa Keene, a second-year medical student at Wake Forest and co-coordinator of the fair and health-promotion campaign. "Hopefully, this project will be a success, and we can empower individuals to be advocates for their own health."

Among the health problems the campaign will address is HIV, a disease that disproportionately affects the African- American and Hispanic populations of Forsyth County. According to the county's Health Department Databook of 2000, HIV is the fifth-leading cause of death among its non-white residents.

Other health problems that commonly affect minorities and will be targeted during the upcoming campaign include heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and sexually transmitted diseases. Before the campaign is launched, students will meet with community leaders to devise the exact strategy, which likely will include TV and radio coverage, as well as advertisements in local print media.

"Medical students tend to get a bad reputation for being egocentric and bookwormy, and the dedication of my fellow students to a project like this shows a very generous side of their nature," says Newton. "The students involved in this project recognize that what they are learning in medical school is a gift, and they are sharing it with the people in need from this community."

By Suria Santana

Each month, the Reporter features recipients of the AAMC's "Caring for Community" awards, an institutional program designed to encourage the development of medical student-initiated services and programs for local communities.

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