Putting prevention into practice at a multi-site teaching clinic

In this project, a health professional institution faced the challenge of incorporating preventive screenings into their multi-site teaching clinics. Several challenges and barriers were identified by the participating faculty “Wellness Committee” including: Faculty unfamiliarity with the evidence base related to preventive screenings, faculty clinician time constraints, varied faculty philosophies related to appropriateness of various preventive screenings in the clinical education setting, and identifying methods to put prevention into practice while not disrupting patient flow or requiring extensive faculty time commitment. Concurrently, a mandate by the chiropractic college accrediting body required all colleges to incorporate such screenings in a timely manner.

The faculty “Wellness Committee” including members from both the clinical and academic educational facets of the institution, developed a plan for putting prevention into practice, with the above-listed challenges in mind. Various methods were proposed and rejected over concerns that clinicians would face insurmountable challenges in identifying appropriate screenings and a practical timetable that would effectively serve a clinic system capable of serving over 1,000 patients per day. Subsequently, a plan was developed utilizing “themed months”, such as American Heart Month, National Osteoporosis Prevention Month, etc to facilitate clinician implementation of preventive screenings related to the themed monthly health topic. This plan, favored by clinicians, is being implemented across three campuses in a variety of clinical settings. This presentation will share the proposed preventive screenings, the themed months and plans for putting prevention into practice in a meaningful and effective manner, involving both student externs and faculty clinicians.