The Corporation for National Service recently gave $91,000 to the C. Everett Koop Institute at the Dartmouth Medical School to support a program that allows medical students to teach children at local schools.
The program, Partners in Health Education, has operated as a pilot program for the past two years.
Dr. Joseph O'Donnell, an associate dean for student affairs at the medical school and one of the project's directors, said the grant will help continue the innovative approach to doctor-patient relations.
O'Donnell said C. Everett Koop '37 was the spark for the program. The former Surgeon General, in his quest to improve the doctor-patient relationship, said medical students should teach in the community, O'Donnell said.
"It is a program where med students work in partnership with teachers in local school systems," O'Donnell said in a telephone interview. "They teach with the teachers. They are there to talk about health promotion and wellness."
O'Donnell said the program has expanded from the Dresden school districts, which were covered in the first year.
A press release said that this year the program linked 27 medical students with teachers in Hanover, Lebanon, South Roy-alton, Canaan, Enfield and other towns.
"We want to keep the schools within driving range," O'Donnell said.
"The Partners in Health program integrates learning with service activities," Koop said in a press release.
"Medical students get out of the clinical setting and into public schools," Koop said.
"Teachers in area schools are empowered by having medical students as a health education resource, while the medical students learn to teach children," he continued.
The $91,000 is for the first year of the three-year grant. The press release said the amounts of the subsequent two years have not been determined.
The money will allow the program to create a resource center, further develop the program, better develop its organization and look at its possible implementation in the New Directors curriculum which strongly emphasizes the doctor-patient relationship.
O'Donnell said instead of having medical students complete two years of studying and two years of clinical experience, the students would have "four years of the integrated sciences in parallel with working with the doctors in these communities."
The grant will also allow the school to conduct a review of the program and its benefits, O'Donnell said.
Overall, O'Donnell said he is pleased with the program and with the grant.
"It take medical education which is based on the illness-model and introduces the wellness-model," he said.
The Corporation for National Service gives grants to enable the creation of community service programs within an institution's education system. This year, it will give out $6.75 million.
Koop could not be reached for further comment.
