PENSACOLA MEDICAL STUDENTS TO TRAIN IN LOCAL COMMUNITY SERVICE AGENCIES

PENSACOLA – Third-year medical students from Florida State University’s Pensacola regional campus will be spending the next three weeks working with local community service agencies as a part of a community medicine rotation designed to broaden their understanding of the role the agencies play in health promotion and disease prevention.

This year’s students have selected to work with a variety of local agencies including, among others, Covenant Hospice, the Escambia County Health Department, Lutheran Services Florida and the Memory Disorder Clinic. For the rotation period they will participate in the day-to-day workings of these community service agencies. “Community Medicine is the perfect venue for students to discover the value of teamwork in delivery of health care to our patients,” said Dr. Paul McLeod, dean of the FSU College of Medicine’s Pensacola campus.

During the three-week assignment, students will observe and assist agency personnel as they provide services to their clients/partners. Dr. Paula Montgomery, vice president of medical services at Covenant Hospice has led students through community medicine rotations the past three years. “The best way to address disease states that cannot be cured is by attention to the patient and his goals. At Covenant Hospice we focus the students on helping patients set realistic goals and on meeting patient needs for comfort and function,’’ Montgomery said. “The impact on the students is an eye-opening awareness of the challenges and rewards of patient-centered rather than disease-centered medicine.”

The FSU College of Medicine is the first allopathic medical school (M.D. program) to open in the United States since 1982. First- and second-year basic sciences and clinical skills are taught in a new state-of-the-art facility in Tallahassee. The third- and fourth-year’s clinical clerkships are taught at one of six regional campuses by board certified physicians in local hospitals, ambulatory care facilities, and physician offices.

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For more information contact Jennifer Rine at 850-494-5939.