iCHEE

inter-professional Community Health and Education Exchange

Winter 2013 course starts January 26 at the Medical Teams International RealLife Exhibit.

REGISTRATION DETAILS

View iCHEE winter 2013 course flier

"My overall experience thus far with iCHEE has been phenomenal. It has opened my eyes to the growing medical and dental problems we have in our country, and through working with other disciplines expanded my knowledge of the medical community."

OHSU Dental Student Class of 2013

Student reports from our recently completed Winter 2012 course at MLK Portland Day Labor Center (VOZ)

Past reports:

A City Bible Church - refugee community report - Fall, 2011
A general iCHEE reflection
A Lutheran Community Services (LCS) report - Spring, 2011
A Portland Day Labor Center (VOZ) report - Winter, 2011

View all iCHEE student reports

We encourage students and faculty to join the many who have had life changing experiences right here in Portland!

Email Valerie Palmer for more details.

Click to view earlier Reflections from the iCHEE™ courses.

iCHEE™, the brain child of Valerie S. Palmer, is an innovative elective in student education while engaging and supporting the community. The program interfaces Portland-resident refugees and other communities with students and faculty mentors from all four OHSU schools. Dental, medicine, nursing and pharmacy students develop multicultural knowledge and cross-professional skills while providing refugees health information, physical check-ups, referrals to low-cost clinics, the Medical Teams International (MTI) Dental van and the Casey Eye Institute (CEI) vision van. Dental and medical students receive 2 credits; nursing students receive credit on other courses and pharmacy students receive "community credit".

This is OHSU's first community-based, interdisciplinary educational program, and the first program aimed at refugees the world over. The goal is to adapt the course to the needs of newly arriving refugee and other underserved groups, and incorporate these opportunities for education and contribution into the optional hands-on experiences that cap the Global Health in Changing Environments course.

History

Asele Bugingo and a Somali Bantu little girl

The project began in the fall of 2008 at Africa House and continued through the winter quarter before moving to Kateri Park community center for Spring 2009. Directed by Valerie S Palmer, GHC Senior Research Associate, with strong logistic support from Cate Bishop, GHC Coordinator, the planning group brought together faculty and student representatives from the four OHSU schools, with the support of the respective deans, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), Catholic Charities, VOZ MLK Day Labor and Lutheran Community Services.

iCHEE™ comprises five 5-hour Saturday community contacts in S.E. Portland with:

African refugees at IRCO-Africa House;
African, Burmese, Hispanic, African American and European American at Esperanza and Kateri Park Community Center;
undocumented workers from South America at VOZ Portland; and
African, Chinese, Eastern Europeans (including Ukrainian, Slovakia, Romanian), Bhutanese, Nepalese, Pakistani, and other communities at the Lutheran Community Center.

Casey Eye Van, students, faculty and clients at Day Labor Center

PARTICIPANTS:

Since inception, 258 students have participated in the iCHEE™ program:

61 from pharmacy (COP),
81 from the nursing school (SON),
53 from the school of medicine (SOM),
47 from the school of dentistry (S0D),
4 from graduate student programs, and
12 from the physician assistant program.

The Global Health Center wishes to thank the many volunteer faculty preceptors and community members who have participated in the program. To date, the iCHEE™ program has served approximately 1,035 people, with little or no medical insurance, and referred or provided dental care (in collaboration with MTI's dental van) to more than half of the clients along with eye care supplied by the OHSU Casey Eye Institute's mobile unit.

Goals for the Future

Provide more opportunities for students and faculty to participate in the iCHEE™ experience;
Firm-up collaborations with MTI's and CEI's mobile units for site visits;
Encourage participation of OHSU resident clinics to care for iCHEE™ clients;
Provide vision screen training and insight on how to handle mental health problems for iCHEE™ students; and
Provide suitable sustainable methods of information transfer to culturally diverse populations (e.g. through theater/music).

Meet Valerie Palmer

Valerie S. Palmer, iCHEE Course Director & Global Health Center Senior Research Associate. Further info

Plus read the Casey Eye’s Inflammatory Remarks article on Valerie Palmer’s extensive work in global health, including an interview with former head-hunters in Papua New Guinea.

Volunteer Faculty

We are always looking for volunteer faculty preceptors from medicine or dentistry for Fall, Winter and Spring quarters. Our time on site is five hours - four Saturdays each quarter. Sign up to be a preceptor for one or more iCHEE™ Saturday sessions - email Valerie Palmer or phone 503 334 6468.

iCHEE in the Oregonian

"OHSU program gives immigrants, the unemployed and underemployed a way to get health checkups," by Nick Budnick, The Oregonian.

... In rows of chairs sit would-be patients: immigrants, the unemployed and the underemployed. Some waiting outside since 6 a.m., they have gathered for free health checks offered by a shoestring program based at Oregon Health & Science University ... View Oregonian article (Photo credit: Thomas Hoggard and Rick Burian)