Student Initiative leads to poster presentation

When four Schulich School of Medicine - Windsor Program students approached the Windsor Essex Community Health Centre as part of their program project with an idea to initiate a student run clinic, their hope was to put their newly acquired skills to practice and make a difference in the lives of people across the community. They had no idea the future impact their project would have.

Initially, the students prepared a proposal to partner with the Centre to care for clients living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) - one of the populations at highest risk for hospital re-admission. Students utilized their skills in history taking, physician examinations and health advocacy. Supervised on site by the Centre's staff of primary care physicians and nurse practitioners, the students cared for COPD clients in the evening, after school hours, and on Fridays if there were no classes. The Centre's staff educated and supervised the medical students to make telephone calls as a follow-up to appointments.

Based on the success of the research findings that resulted in part from the work undertaken by the students, the Windsor Essex Community Health Centre submitted an abstract to the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) for a poster presentation at the OHA's Annual Convention - Health Achieve 2012 in November.