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  • 2018 Migrant Farmworker Clinic Internship/Fellowsh

    2018 UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic Internship/Fellowship

    Sponsored by the UConn Honor’s Program, El Instituto: Latina/o, Caribbean & Latin American Studies, CT Area Health Education Center & the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic

    Brief Description:

    The UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic fellowship is a competitive award that allows a maximum of two students with an interest in migration studies and/or medicine to spend part of the summer and fall providing administrative, research and clinic support to the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinics.

    Required and Preferred Qualifications:

    Requirements: Reliable vehicle to drive to and from clinics. Ability to use vehicle to transport supplies and other volunteers on scheduled clinic nights. Work directly with co-fellow on a daily basis to accomplish tasks listed above.

    Preferences:  Honors students whose undergraduate research would be enhanced by the opportunity; who have an interest working in a medical setting and/or with migrant populations; Spanish speakers.

    Benefits for Selected Applicants:

    1. The internship will carry 2 credits, assigned in the fall; fellows sign up for LLAS 4212 with Dr. Gebelein of El Instituto.
    2. The fellowship during the summer comes with a stipend of $1,000 to cover traveling expenses to and from the UConn Health Center to clinics across CT.
    3. Building resume to include the following experiences:
    • Spring through Fall 2018 internship at CT Area Health Education Center with the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic as an administrative coordinator of volunteers
    • Fellowship during the summer of 2018  - with the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic, provided clinical trainings and volunteer supervision at UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic triage station. Contributed to team of researcher doing longitudinal study with migrant and seasonal farm workers.
    • Fall 2018 with El Instituto Latina/o, Caribbean & Latin American Studies and the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic
      • Guest speaker during undergraduate course LLAS/HIST 1570
      • Provided clinical training to undergrad students in LLAS/HIST 1570
      • Contributed reflection to Fall 2018 El Instituto newsletter

    Detailed Information About the Organization:

    Full Organization Information:  UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic, c/o CT Area Health Education Center at UConn Health, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06030-2928,

    El Instituto Contact: Anne Gebelein, PhD, Associate Director, El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean and Latin American Studies (anne.gebelein@uconn.edu, 860-436-8030)

    UConn Health Center/CT AHEC/UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic Contact: Shannon McClure, Program Coordinator, UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic, CT Area Health Education Center (smcclure@uchc.edu, 860-679-4223)

    Industry/Agency Description:  The UConn and Connecticut Area Health Education Program (CT AHEC) developed the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinics to provide free primary health care, health education, and increased access to quality, community-based, primary health care services to migrant and seasonal farm worker populations in Connecticut. 

    Connecticut hosts 7,000-20,000 migrant farm workers annually. This population is part of the poorest group in the United States with the highest rate of occupational injury and illness with little or no access to health care. To address this issue, the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Connecticut Area Health Education Program (CT AHEC) developed the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinics which provide free primary health care, health education, and increased access to quality, community-based, primary health care services to migrant and seasonal farm worker populations in Connecticut. For more information visit http://www.publichealth.uconn.edu/migrant-farm-worker-clinics.html 

    Application Specifics:

    1. Send a one page statement indicating how this experience would help further the applicant’s academic and/or professional goals to Anne Gebelein, PhD, Associate Director, El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean and Latin American Studies (anne.gebelein@uconn.edu) The deadline is noon on Friday, March 30, 2018.

    2. Complete CT AHEC participant application at: https://publichealthuconn.wufoo.com/forms/z1k9l4lc02umvw4/

    Note: The first section asks “Indicate Your Affiliation” please select “Undergraduate student.” Then in open ended question “Other” at the bottom of this section, please write the following “Applicant for El Instituto/MFWC Fellowship”

    If accepted, please note:

    Immediate after being accepted, each fellow must connect with co-fellow to find mutually agreeable dates/times to propose to:

    1. The clinic coordinator at UConn Health, CT AHEC office in Farmington for spring internship training

    2. Dr. Anne Gebelein at El Instituto

    3. Mark calendar to attend the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Symposium on June 5th from 8:30-3:30 at UConn Health, Massey Auditorium. During this session, assist with clinical training session. Complete registration  application at: https://publichealthuconn.wufoo.com/forms/2018-migrant-farm-worker-symposium/

    Learning Experiences Offered by the Organization:

    Fellows will be trained to assist patients and clinical volunteers. The clinics will run Tuesday through Thursday evenings. Learning goals include increased cultural competency, health literacy and understanding of social justice issues in medicine. Because of first-hand knowledge, fellows will be able to articulate:

    • Barriers to health care faced by an uninsured population and by a migrant population
    • Health care and labor issues among Jamaican, Mexican, Central and South American migrant laborers
    • Occupational hazards and preventive measures for farm workers working in Connecticut orchards, berry farms and tobacco fields
    • Common health issues for farm workers and treatment including medications that are distributed during the clinics
    • Improved medical Spanish vocabulary by translating and speaking to patients at the farms (if applicable)
    • Training methods for new volunteers on how to take a focused medical encounter, take vital signs, and present to the attending.

    Spring Internship (Required training experience for Fellows)

    Estimated hours of commitment: 30 hours over 2 months

    Brief Description: The fellowship is complemented by a required internship this spring which will allows the fellow(s) to train directly about the administrative roles with experienced clinic manager of 15 years from the CT Area Health Education Center (AHEC). The spring trainings will be at UConn Health in Farmington and must occur at mutually agreeable times for trainers and both fellows.

    During these trainings, we will review goals, divide roles and responsibilities, cross train on systems and start work immediately to identify accepted and rejected candidates then setting up a master schedule in a shared drive. Send schedule to students by the first of each month.

    Summer Fellowship

    Summer Fellowship (for $1,000 stipend): Each fellow is eligible for a $500 stipend through UConn Honors/El Instituto, and $500 from CT AHEC for a total of $1,000.

    Estimated hours of commitment: 60 hours over 3 months

    Brief Description: During the summer, the fellowship truly takes shape as fellows build on their administrative roles (listed above), start shadowing and continuing to build confidence in clinical skills, fulfill leadership roles and training others at the clinics, and contribute to a longitudinal research study with migrant farm workers.

    During this internship, each fellow will select one of the administrative roles and responsibilities identified above to be carried out from April through mid-October:

    1. Vitals Station Scheduler: One of the fellows will be the group scheduler for a cohort of volunteers who will staff the ‘Vitals Station’ at the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic. The administrative tasks for the fellow leading/overseeing this cohort include:

    2. Volunteer training scheduler: One of the fellows will be responsible for all required correspondence for the “New Volunteer Trainings.” These trainings are required for some groups and optional for other clinic volunteers. Theses trainings are offered over the course of the summer and fall typically on Monday afternoons from 1-3 p.m. and will be lead by medical student coordinators and vitals station leads (including fellows) on a rotating basis. 

    Clinical Roles: Fellows will be assigned to shadow and train with medical students so that by the end of the summer, fellow should feel confident in the didactic training and clinical training pieces as they will be responsible for conducting a training without medical students on the Storrs campus.  

    The clinical training elements will include hands-on training for taking specific screening tests used at the vitals station during our clinics. These include blood pressure, blood glucose, respiratory rate and heart rate. After training directly with the medical students, fellows are encouraged to keep training or self-train using medical equipment from CT AHEC until they feel proficient. Fellows must be proficient so that they can directly train others before the clinic as well as to oversee, troubleshoot and correct volunteers during clinics so that universal precautions are being met for the safety of our patients and volunteers.

    Research Roles: Over the summer, both fellows will assist in collecting data for a longitudinal research study investigating the incidence and prevalence of depression among migrant and seasonal farm workers (MSFWs) in Connecticut. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate high rates of prevalence of depression among the migrant farm worker populations in Connecticut compared with the general population so that UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic and its partners can hopefully find funding and resources to address this behavioral health need.

    Both fellows will be provided with an orientation about this research study directly by the co-investigators. Then, fellows will schedule several dates over the summer to work in the CT AHEC office at UConn Health with one of the co-investigators to review patient charts and data collected during the 2017 & 2018 clinics and enter into our database de-identified data using a coding system. The aggregate de-identified clinic data will later be analyzed by the co-investigators using organizational and statistical tools such as Excel and SPSS or SAS. If needed, fellows must follow up with co-investigators on the team directly for information relating to the research study findings.

    Fall Roles/Responsibilities:

    Fall Internship Description: Continue administrative roles about as scheduler and coordinator, attend a minimum of 4 clinics and work with Professor Anne Gebelein to contribute to the honors core course by providing clinical training, sharing experiences during a class and in the El Instituto newsletter.

    Estimated hours of commitment: 50 hours over 3 months, with the bulk of the hours between the end of August and mid-October.

    Duties, roles and responsibilities:

    Administrative roles Set up fall schedule for undergraduate, post baccalaureate and other students applying to health profession schools. Send schedule to volunteers by August 1st. Update schedule weekly in google.docs file shared by other coordinators of the clinic. 

    Role with El Instituto: In the fall, fellows will contribute to the honors core course LLAS/HIST 1570 by:

    a. Providing a training for student volunteers for Dr. Anne Gebelein’s students in the course LLAS/HIST 1570 during the first week of September in the evening on the Storrs campus (date/time TBD).

    b. Coordinating  LLAS/HIST 1570 student carpools from the Storrs campus to fall clinics

    c. Working with the professor

    • to present on summer experience to a class
    • write a reflection for El Instituto’s newsletter

    This internship/fellowship has been established by funds from the UConn Honors Program endowment, El Instituto, and CT AHEC.

    For more information, contact: Anne Gebelein at anne.gebelein@uconn.edu