Big Picture Clinicians: Putting “Public” into Clinical Health Professions Training

There is a disconnect between clinical training and public health training – one deals largely with individual patients and the other with a population. The current health care arena demands an understanding of these interrelated paradigms in order to navigate various health care systems for the patient’s benefit and bolster public health workforce infrastructure. This session tackles the challenge of delivering integrated training to aspiring health professionals - including but not limited to physician assistants, physicians, and nurse practitioners - and simplifies the approach so that educators and clinician preceptors can readily incorporate the material into their interactions with trainees. Emphasis will be placed on the benefits of, and manageable models for, interprofessional education utilizing multidisciplinary learning of public health concepts; quality improvement methods; and health care administrative functions. Trainee feedback on current curricular changes at one institution will be discussed. Active workforce education strategies will also be covered. The interactive learning format of the sessions will allow participants to learn from one another. Participants will return to their respective educational and/or clinically-based programs with strategies that will enhance the public health-minded health professions workforce for future generations.