Clinical Education

Overview

PNWU has used the “recruit-train-return” academic model since its inception. This approach strives to recruit students from rural and underserved areas, train them in rural and underserved communities, and return them to provide healthcare in these very communities. To implement this approach for our DMD program, the PNWU-SDM has established partnerships with three well-established Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers (FQHCs) who have committed to building and staffing three community-based clinics in Washington, one in Kennewick (Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic), one in Tacoma (Sea Mar Community Health Centers), and one in Yakima (Yakima Neighborhood Health Services). Each clinic will be in an underserved region of the state, with an adequate number of patients to achieve the academic goals of the DMD program.

Clinical Training Model

The DMD academic program is a 1 + 3 educational model. Incoming students will spend the D1 academic year on the Yakima PNWU campus. On the main campus, the SDM will have a full simulation clinic and support areas located in the Student Learning Collaborative facility (SLC), a comprehensive simulation facility that supports all the PNWU academic programs, and space for didactic teaching, administrative offices, and faculty offices in the Watson 2 building.

At the start of the D2 year, students will be evenly divided (12 students each) to one of three community-based clinics for the D2, D3, and D4 academic years. The community-based clinics will be in Kennewick, owned by the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (YVFWC), in Tacoma, owned by the Sea Mar Community Health Centers (Sea Mar), and in Yakima, owned by the Yakima Neighborhood Health Services (YNHS) (see map below for locations).

Site selection will be conducted prior to the start of the D1 academic year. This will allow students to plan their living arrangement for the D2-D4 year as early as possible. Students will be provided the opportunity to rank order their site preference and provide written input as to why they want to be assigned to a specific clinic location. These preferences will be considered when finalizing clinical assignments. However, not all preferences may be honored.