AHEC Scholars

What Is AHEC Scholars?

AHEC Scholars is a nationally recognized certificate program for health profession students interested in supplementing their education by gaining additional knowledge and experience in rural and underserved settings. AHEC Scholars is a two-year program that complements existing coursework to emphasizes a team-based approach with interdisciplinary curricula implementing a defined set of clinical, didactic, and community-based activities for healthcare. The program is nationally funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration to focus on strengthening the healthcare workforce.

Requirements each year:

• 40 hours/year community-based, experiential, or clinical training in rural and/or underserved area; and
• 40 hours/year of didactic core topic areas. The didactic education is focused on the eight core topic areas listed below.

Didactic Core Topic Areas:

1. Interprofessional Education (also known as interdisciplinary training) supports a coordinated, patient centered model of healthcare that involves an understanding of the contributions of multiple healthcare professionals.
2. Behavioral Health Integration promotes the development of integrated primary and behavioral health services to better address the needs of individuals with mental health and substances use conditions.
3. Connecting Communities and Supporting Health Professionals to increase training and development of CHWs and paraprofessionals to be the connectors who are able to serve as a liaison/link/intermediary between health professionals and the community to facilitate access to service and improve health equity, community/population health, and social determinants of health.
4. Virtual Learning and Telehealth seeks to improve virtual learning and telehealth curricula and community-based experiential training. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all health care systems, hospitals, and clinics to rapidly implement telehealth services, simulation-based technology, and virtual trainings to continue delivering patient care.
5. Social Determinants of Health includes the five key areas (determinants) of economic stability, education, social and community context, health and healthcare, and neighborhood and built environment and their impacts on health.
6. Cultural Competency seeks to improve individual health and build health communities by training healthcare providers to recognize and address the unique culture, language, and health literacy of diverse consumers and communities.
7. Practice Transformation aims to fully support quality improvement and patient-centered care through goal-setting, leadership, practice facilitation, workflow changes, measuring outcomes, and adapting organizational tools and processes to support new team-based models of care delivery.
8. Current and emerging health issues, such as the COVID-19, Zika virus, and opioid abuse, should be proposed before implementation.

Additional didactic options include elective credits, case recall, webinars, conferences, podcasts, meetings, trainings, etc.

AHEC Scholars will help you:

• Earn recognition as a student leader in the health community;
• Inspire and improve health status and outcomes through your improved command of leadership;
• Be better positioned to join or lead a diverse and culturally competent health workforce;
• Gain practical didactic/civic engagement opportunities;
• Enhance your resume; and
• Interact with healthcare leaders and professionals creating an invaluable network for your future career.

Eligibility Criteria

Students should have a current interest in rural or underserved healthcare; be currently enrolled in a health professions degree; and be two years from program or degree completion.

AHEC Scholars is for health professional students wishing to enhance their education by gaining additional leadership knowledge and experience in rural and/or underserved areas.

Students are eligible to receive $500 per year ($1000 total) upon completion of the program requirements mentioned above.

Scholars Application

For questions, contact:

Alex Dralle, Director
Eastern AHEC
Email Alex
(701) 788-4795

Taylor Kittelson, Director
Western AHEC
Email Taylor
(701) 788-4785