#nh_ahec_scholars#

Hello Scholars,

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season and are able to spend a few moments away from your studies to relax.

I am thankful for having the opportunity to spend time with some of you in Northern NH. We hope you walked away from the trip with some new energy or new perspective into work/life in rural communities.

For those of you who were not able to attend the Northern NH trip, please know we are working on another trip in the Spring to the Southern region of the state, and will be hosting the Northern NH trip again next Fall.

If you have community-based opportunities or didactic sessions/trainings to share, please let us know, and we can include them on our website or in the newsletter.

Best wishes,

Kristina Fjeld-Sparks

Sign up!

If you haven’t already, please remember to complete our registration form [link], which officially enrolls you in the NH AHEC Health Equity Scholars program. We do need this completed for all Scholars, so please take 10 minutes to complete it before the end of January 2024. After you have registered, please be on the lookout for the activity tracker from our CPDE evaluator (catherine.m.denial@dartmouth.edu) in late January! (The tracker is how we record the number of hours you have engaged in our offerings, which is required for grant reporting purposes.)

If you are not interested in continuing to receive these notices or being a NH AHEC Health Equity Scholar, then do not fill out the form. We will remove the names of students who have not completed the baseline documents from our distribution list at the end of January.

A reminder about our program . . .

New Hampshire AHEC Health Equity Scholars is part of the AHEC Scholars Program, a nationally recognized voluntary program for health professions students/residents. It provides opportunities for trainees to increase knowledge, strengthen leadership skills, and gain competencies within eight broad topic areas (listed below).

The NH AHEC Scholars Program currently works with medical students, physician assistant students, and public health students interested in learning more about health care in rural and underserved communities of New Hampshire.

AHEC Scholars Core Topic Areas

Behavioral Health Integration
Services that better address the needs of individuals with mental health and substance use conditions, including training for health professionals to address burnout and resiliency

Connecting Communities and Supporting Health Professionals/Community Health Workers (CHWs)
Increase training and development of paraprofessionals who serve as connectors between health professionals and the community

Interprofessional Education/Interprofessional Practice
Team-based care delivery, patient-centered care, effective teamwork

Virtual Learning and Telehealth
Use of technology to improve community-based experiential training

Social Determinants of Health
Education, housing and food security/insecurity, social and community context, health and health care, neighborhood and other built environment

Cultural Competency
Recognize and address the unique culture, language and health literacy of diverse consumers and communities, diversity, equity, and inclusion

Practice Transformation
Quality improvement, care coordination, cost containment, rural healthcare, primary care, care for underserved/disadvantaged populations, patient-centered care, team-based care

Current and Emerging Health Issues
Such as: substance use conditions/disorders; climate change and health

Benefits of Participation

Designation as a New Hampshire AHEC Scholar, a nationally recognized distinction
List on CV “Honors and Awards” section
An achievement to discuss in residency program and job interviews to differentiate from other applicants
Enhance educational experience by engaging with those who live in rural and underserved communities
Gain a deeper understanding of communities through opportunities to hear from and interact with providers, policy makers, community leaders, and others who care for those in rural and underserved populations
Gain experience in interprofessional care and care for the underserved

Requirements

The program must cover two years (unless your professional program is less than two years), with each year including 40 hours of eligible didactic education and 40 hours of eligible experiential or clinical training, for a total of 160 hours of eligible activities. NH AHEC relies on students to track and report their own hours. Students completing these requirements will receive certification as a New Hampshire AHEC Health Equity Scholar upon completion of the program.

Learning opportunities

Below are a few optional learning opportunities that have come to our attention. This list is not exhaustive, so please share any others that have come to your attention and you think others may benefit from! In addition, if you have a particular interest in a topic area, please email me, we’d love to build curriculum based on your interests!

Preventing Intentional Self-Poisoning in Youth

For more information and to enroll

A 2.5 hour online self-study toolkit planned and implemented by The Robert Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and Northern New England Poison Center, and Safe Kids Vermont.

Objectives: Providers will be able to:
• Describe trends related to intentional self-poisoning in youth.
• Identify potentially harmful substances youth may use for self-poisoning.
• Describe the poison center’s role in managing self-poisonings.
• Identify patients at high risk for self-poisoning.
• Engage in self-poisoning safety planning with patients.
• Create a primary-care management plan for youth at risk for self-poisoning.

2024 NYC Child Trafficking Prevention Conference: Evolving Safety Through Prevention, Intervention, and Mitigation

15 free, virtual participatory workshops in recognition of Human Trafficking Prevention Month (January 11 through 31)

Workshop titles:

Understanding Child Trafficking; A Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective
Post Traumatic Growth and Trauma Resolution
Newton’s Law: Secondary Traumatic Stress
Safety Planning WITH Trafficked Youth
Intersection of Human Trafficking and Substance Use Disorder
Trauma-Informed Art Therapy for Kids
Through the Eyes of a Child Abuse Physician: The Role of Health Care in Providing Services to Trafficked Youth
Foreign National Trafficking in the United States
“Take It Down” and Other NCMEC Tools to Prevent Further Victimization
Survivor Voices: The “Here for You” Credible Messengers Program – Video and Panel
Working with LGBTQ+ Youth Who Have Experienced or Are At-Risk for Sex Trafficking
Navigating Safe Spaces: A Journey of Belonging
NYC’s Child Welfare Trafficking Policy and Screening Children for Sex Trafficking in ACS’ Child Trafficking Database (CTDB)
Sextortion – The Global Pandemic
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Awareness: What You Need to Know

View schedule and register for individual workshops.

Compassionate Communication in Community Care for Families

A 1-hour online module [link] presented by Farrah Sheehan Deselle, MSN, RN, IBCLC
Southern New Hampshire Area Health Education Center

Learning Objectives

State the importance of compassionate communication by care providers.
Identify at least one individual barrier to expressing care and concern in a challenging or difficult situation.
Identify at least three new strategies (phases or approaches) to enhance compassionate communication in challenging or difficult situations.