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Portland

Staff from UNE’s Center for Excellence in Public Health present at rural health conference

Melanie Caldwell and Toho Soma
Melanie Caldwell and Toho Soma of UNE's Center for Excellence in Public Health

Staff from UNE’s Center for Excellence in Public Health (CEPH) recently presented at the New England Rural Health Association Annual Meeting in Killington, Vermont.

Toho Soma, M.P.H., M.S., senior research associate in CEPH, and Melanie Caldwell, M.S., project manager in CEPH, shared their experience creating and implementing a Primary Care Experiential Learning Toolkit for College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM), physician assistant (PA), and School of Pharmacy students, in partnership with two Maine-based federally qualified health centers serving rural Maine.

In their presentation, “Implementing an Experiential Learning Toolkit in Primary Care Settings,” Soma and Caldwell shared the content and purpose of the toolkit and explained how other sites may adapt the toolkit to benefit their needs around primary care.

The toolkit was created to enhance clinical rotations in rural primary care and to encourage students to pursue careers in rural health.

Maine and other New England states are in need of rural health care providers. Students expressed a greater desire to work in rural areas following their experience with the toolkit and project activities.

The project was made possible by a six-year Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Primary Care Training and Enhancement (PCTE) grant.

 

 

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.