About the Institute

About Primary Care

The United States is facing a shortage of primary care providers. There are approximately 800,000 South Carolinians who currently do not have health insurance but who may gain coverage under the recently enacted healthcare reform legislation. In order to provide quality care for our current and future patients, we must have a solid base of primary care.

Primary care providers treat and coordinate the care of people across their life span. We help our patients navigate through illness and health. We advocate wellness and a healthy lifestyle, and we screen for diseases so we may lessen disease burden or even eliminate it. We specialize in knowing our patients -- coaching, consoling, leading, and advocating. We are proud to combine our understanding of mechanisms of disease and treatment with our personal knowledge of our patients.

We provide comprehensive care for most problems, coordinate care across the boundaries of subspecialties, and provide continuous care across time and through the ups and downs of life.

We care, and we care well -- providing a necessary entry point for patients into the healthcare system and helping our patients make decisions about healthcare choices and resources.

What We Do

Beginning in Spring 2013, the Institute provides a monthly interprofessional seminar series, an annual conference, and opportunities for mentorship, networking, and leadership to students who are interested and committed to primary care.

As an Institute fellow, you will have access to training experiences to augment your clinical skills and knowledge and to teach you how to provide interprofessional, state-of-the-art primary care.

Vision

To transform primary care by providing innovative professional and interprofessional development experiences for advanced practice nursing, medical, and physician assistant students.

Mission

To provide outstanding learning opportunities, support, and guidance for advanced practice nursing, medical, and physician assistant students interested in careers in primary care.

Learning Objectives

After completion of the Institute, fellows will be able to:

• Describe the vital functions and roles of a healthy primary care team within a community.
• Demonstrate skills critical for effective practice in primary care, including population management, patient-centered medical care, interprofessional collaboration, leadership, and advocacy.
• Describe how to decrease healthcare disparities, with a particular focus on the impact race, culture, language, education, and socioeconomic status can have on health outcomes.