About the South Louisiana AHEC Scholars Program
South Louisiana AHEC Scholars is part of a national network of AHEC Scholars programs that aim to equip an inter-professional workforce to practice community-based primary care in rural and underserved areas. The two-year program includes 160 hours of classroom and community-based learning to ensure Scholars have the skills they need to serve those who need it most. Learn more about the National AHEC Program here.
Education and training for AHEC Scholars will focus on eight core topic areas (see below).
The eight core topic areas are mirrored in community-based and classroom-based learning, and a reflective practice is used to bridge those experiences. All work in AHEC Scholars leads toward a culminating project of the Scholar’s design. Click to find out more about our Learning Framework.
Eight Core Topic Areas
Social Determinants of Health
Social determinants of health include five key areas that are known determinants of ones’ health status: economic stability, education, social and community context, health and health care, and neighborhood and built environment
Cultural Competency
Cultural competency seeks to improve individual health and build health communities by training health care providers to recognize and address the unique culture, language and health literacy of diverse consumers and communities.
Behavioral Health Integration
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.
Practice Transformation
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.
Interprofessional Education
IPE (also known as interdisciplinary training) supports a coordinated, patient-centered model of health care that involves an understanding of the contributions of multiple health care professionals.
Current and Emerging Health Issues
Current and emerging health issues is a broad domain that allows us to cover issues as they are relevant - e.g. Zika, COVID-19, and the opioid epidemic.
Connecting Communities and Supporting Health Professionals
Aims 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.
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.