Why is My Service Learning Experience Unique?

I chose to complete my service learning through the clinic where I am employed for one very important reason…My clinic’s mission is to increase access and quality of health care to the medically underserved.  This is who we are and what we do on a daily basis.  This community health clinic has a varied population of patients; neonates to elderly, acute to chronic care, fully insured to self-pay.  We provide multiple outreach services to 3 counties including primary care screenings, dental services, haircuts, mental health screenings, SNAP/EBT Enrollment, and Affordable Care Act/Medicare/Medicaid assistance, among others.

A little bit about the organization…The Health Care Coalition (HCC) of Lafayette County, dba Health Care Collaborative of Rural Missouri is a Missouri-based rural health network and a Federally Qualified Health Center located in Waverly, Missouri and is the umbrella organization for the Live Well Community Health Centers located in Lafayette, Carroll and Eastern Jackson County of Missouri.

The HCC has a mission to “Cultivate partnerships and deliver quality health care to strengthen rural communities”. The HCC is a rural health network, committed to improving the health status of underserved populations in its service area. The HCC was formally established in 2006, following a three-year period of the Network partners informally working together to address area health care needs, specifically to ensure that the health care needs of all citizens in our service area are met, particularly the needs of the under- and uninsured. The focus is to develop and implement programs that are responsive to documented health needs of county residents, with specific health status indicators as benchmarks for progress on addressing those needs. Since its inception, the HCC has developed into a comprehensive rural health network, with a wide variety of health, social services and community partners that provide health and wellness prevention and treatment programs for all citizens in our service area, and focused on the health care needs of low-income, under- and uninsured residents. The HCC’s strength lies in developing collaborative relationships, utilizing the strengths of individual organizations to develop programs and services that are larger than any one organization.

The mission, values and goals of HCC align with my professional goals as a rural health care provider.  I find that offering my time and services, outside of clinic time, is essential to improving the health care quality of my community.  Providing leadership within this organization to assist in collaboration efforts to ensure that services are provided to meet the needs of the community are imperative for health care promotion and prevention.  Providing free sport physicals at 4 clinic locations, among others, and going to the community Senior Center to provide glucose and blood pressure screening is one way that myself and the organization can strive to meet our mission.