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Learning from Young Mothersby Kimberlee Barbour
The purpose of the COPC program, said Dr. Afreen Pappa, assistant professor of family and community medicine and associate residency program director, is to train physicians to become not only confident in practicing medicine, but also more knowledgeable of their patient population beyond the exam room. Curriculum requirements for family medicine residency programs stipulate that most of the residents' time be spent in the clinic or hospital, reducing the amount of time residents have to develop a better understanding of—and even a relationship with—those in the community. Development of the COPC curriculum for residents is funded by one part of a Health Resources Services Administration Primary Care Training grant. The principal investigator for this grant is Dr. Jane Corboy, associate professor of family and community medicine at BCM. The two-year COPC curriculum and project began as a partnership between the St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities (SLEHC), a grant-making public charity that assesses and enhances lifelong community health, and the department of family and community medicine at BCM. Working with SLEHC, residents learned how to gather information about select neighborhoods and then interview their respective community leaders, many of whom expressed concern about childhood obesity and teen pregnancy. They then went on to develop an intervention with the pregnant and parenting teens at Jeff Davis High School in Houston. "The intervention began as an infant feeding program, but pregnant and parenting moms at Jeff Davis High School wanted a broader range of topics," said Shah, who helped meet the teens' demand for information on child development, immunizations, family dynamics, time management and sexual health. Perhaps the most touching session was on empowerment, in which a graduate of the residency program and current faculty member, herself a former teenage mom, led the discussion. "She spoke about how hard but gratifying it is to complete college and medical school after having had a baby during high school," said Pappa. "The girls felt permitted to open up about their hopes and fears during the discussion. There wasn't a dry eye in the room." Dr. Nancy Weller, coordinator of COPC training for the residency program, is trying to gather funding to continue the program at Jeff Davis High School, and, if successful, hopes to expand it to other Houston-area high schools with high rates of teen pregnancy. The program's benefits, as Shah witnessed, endure in more ways than one. "I can definitely see a program like this in my practice model," said Shah. "This project helped us learn about building an effective, inexpensive program to enhance the lives of neighborhood residents in need. The bonus was that we were rewarded by the rich experience of getting to know these young women and the opportunity to enhance both their well-being and that of their children." |
Patient CareHealthy Living for a Thousand, Alex ResearchFighting Obesity one Molecule at a Time Doctors are from Jupiter, Patients are from Saturn EducationA Lot's Changed in 40 Years... Sort Of Community ServiceAlumni & DevelopmentBuilding BCM and Biochemistry History Following Father's Bedside Manner More than a Street Sign: Advocates for Medicine College NewsAn Artist in the Medical Arena
Educating the Next Generation of Leaders
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Volume 2, Issue 3, Fall 2006 |
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| Last modified: October 10, 2008 |
Our purpose was to teach these young women healthy infant feeding and useful parenting techniques," said Dr. Krupa Shah, a recent graduate of the Baylor College of Medicine-HCHD family and community medicine residency program, which emphasizes Community-Oriented Primary Care (COPC). "But on more than a few occasions, the teachers learned from the life experiences of their students."