A Comparison of Two Regional Campus Systems and their Impact on Addressing Health Care Needs of the Underserved

Abstract

A major impact of the late 1970s Carnegie Commission on Higher Education’s report titled Higher Education and the Nation’s Health was the funding and development of Area Health Education Centers (AHECs).1 AHECs were located in rural and medically underserved areas in the states, with a goal of developing medical education programs to improve the manpower needs of these underserved communities.1 The University of North Carolina School of Medicine (UNC SOM), developed such a network in the 1970s to accomplish this task,2 and this paper reflects upon the success of the UNC AHEC system as well as the Florida State University College of Medicine (FSU COM), regional campus distributive education model in achieving this goal. The legislature of the State of Florida specially created FSU COM with a mission focused on producing primary care doctors and physicians who serve the needs of rural, geriatric, underserved, and minority populations.3 FSU COM’s distributive medical education system has successfully accomplished this mission.3,4 I completed medical school and residency in the UNC AHEC system, and I am currently a regional campus Dean at FSU COM.

Brief Exercise in Narrative Medicine for Preclinical Medical and Premedical Students: MY STORY

“…As an introduction to compassion training and the importance of empathy, the group heard a presentation covering the professional identity curriculum used at the Trover Campus. 4,5 The focus of the narrative exercise was provided by a quote: But often (third year histories) were not as good as first-year students in gaining an accurate and comprehensive view of what bothered the patient, or what living with the illness was like… The disparate behavior of first-and third-year medical students was the result of education. First-year students listened to the story of illness.…”