{"id":4509,"date":"2018-07-10T14:29:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T19:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/for-wisconsin\/?post_type=campus_story&p=4509"},"modified":"2018-09-06T13:04:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T18:04:59","slug":"wisconsin-express-program-teaches-uw-madison-students-about-health-care-in-underserved-areas","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/wisconsin-express-program-teaches-uw-madison-students-about-health-care-in-underserved-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Express program teaches UW-Madison students about health care in underserved areas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Students in the Wisconsin Express program in 2016. The program visits communities across Wisconsin to learn about public health dilemmas.\u00a0COURTESY OF AHEC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A group of 75 University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison students will be in the field May 21-26 to learn firsthand about the diversity of the state\u2019s health care system.<\/p>\n

As a part of the Wisconsin Express program, which is organized by the\u00a0Wisconsin Area Health Education Centers<\/a>, the students will travel to 11 communities across Wisconsin, learning about public health dilemmas in the state, Wisconsin Express statewide program coordinator Keri Robbins said. Students visit clinics, shadow health care professionals and participate in activities that help them learn about diverse Wisconsin communities such as Native American tribes, Somali refugees, Amish populations, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe on-site coordinator takes students behind the scenes, to visit places that an ordinary visitor wouldn\u2019t have access to, and to hear unvarnished stories about what it\u2019s really like to live there,\u201d Robbins said. \u201cGetting the insider perspective makes this program a memorable, at times life-changing, opportunity to discover and begin to understand the health challenges and local resources through the lens of people who live in that region of our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state that I\u2019m in is much more diverse than just what I see every day,\u201d Jordan Gaal, 2016 Wisconsin Express participant and current intern in the Madison AHEC office, said. \u201cHealth care faces many challenges that I didn\u2019t even know existed.\u201dThe students come from a variety of health professions programs, from physical therapy to pharmacy to nursing. Past participants of the Wisconsin Express program said their experience gave them a greater understanding of how Wisconsin\u2019s health care system works, especially in underserved areas or communities with unique cultures.<\/p>\n

Rural areas in Wisconsin are some of the places that have the most difficulties in terms of health care, said McKenzie Borkovec, UW junior who went to the Ladysmith site in Rusk and Barron counties in northwestern Wisconsin. One of the things that surprised Borkovec most was the lack of access to care in rural areas.<\/p>\n

When low-income families live in remote areas, finding transportation to a clinic or hospital can be nearly impossible, Borkovec said. Some residents are so far away from hospitals or clinics, it can take 45 minutes for an ambulance to get to them, Borkovec added.<\/p>\n

To understand what it\u2019s like to face some of these challenges, Gaal said students in the program participated in a poverty simulation. They were given a pretend identity, fake money and problems about daily life to solve. Gaal said it was \u201ceye opening\u201d to see that some Wisconsinites would barely have time and money to go to the grocery store after work, let alone to the doctor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Danielle Hurst, a UW senior and pre-med student, went to Fennimore in southwest Wisconsin as a part of the program. Hurst said there was a shortage of health care professionals to serve the rural communities that she visited, including the Amish community, Hispanic populations and in the local prison.<\/p>\n

Gaal, who was on the same trip as Hurst, said the clinics in the Fennimore area had \u201cridiculous\u201d waiting times and a severe shortage of psychiatrists. There were four counties that shared one psychiatrist, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially in rural and certain urban areas and then within the prison system as well, there just aren\u2019t enough doctors; there aren\u2019t enough nurses,\u201d Gaal said.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Students do a poverty simulation as part of the Wisconsin Express program, helping illustrate some of the difficult choices people in poverty face.\u00a0COURTESY OF AHEC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to gaining an understanding of medically underserved areas in Wisconsin, Hurst said she also realized that cultural differences among Wisconsinites can greatly influence their health needs.UW Senior Valerie Burnett, who went to the Menominee Reservation in northeast Wisconsin, said taking part in the Wisconsin Express program made her interested in going into rural health care, something she was uninterested in before. She said if she worked as a nurse in an underserved area she thinks she could make a bigger impact on a community and gain more personal connections with patients.<\/p>\n

Hurst\u2019s group spent a day on an Amish farm and talked with an Amish family about the homeopathic medications they use. Her group also learned about how emergency care in many Spanish-speaking countries is less expensive, so many people in Wisconsin Hispanic communities need help understanding how emergency appointments and insurance work in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Burnett said understanding different cultures helps medical professionals better serve their patients. For Burnett, learning about the history of the Menominee Native American tribe helped her learn how they should be treated medically.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Wisconsin Express students at an event in Janesville.\u00a0COURTESY OF AHEC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Given Wisconsinites have different ethnicities, cultures, values and socioeconomic statuses it\u2019s important to meet people where they\u2019re at in terms of their health care, Borkovec said.\u201cIf you don\u2019t have a background in that, then you really don\u2019t completely understand the problem and you can\u2019t treat the patients as well as you should be able to,\u201d Burnett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people with a lot of difference practices and beliefs,\u201d Borkovec said. \u201cYou have to be able to respect them and try \u2026 your best to accommodate what they want, while still giving them the best care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of 75 University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison students will be in the field May 21-26 to learn firsthand about the diversity of the state\u2019s health care system. As a part of the Wisconsin Express program, which is organized by the\u00a0Wisconsin Area Health Education Centers, the students will travel to 11 communities across Wisconsin, learning about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":4511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[103],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-4509","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-madison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/4509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=4509"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=4509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}