University of Florida

The UF AHEC Program leverages the resources of the academic health center and other educational institutions to improve access to health-care services in medically underserved communities. Faculty and health professions students who engage in AHEC-coordinated training at community-based clinics and medical practices produce new and enhanced patient services through AHEC's academic extension programs. Working with preceptors and/or faculty supervisors, students also conduct a wide array of community health projects that local health-care facilities otherwise would not have the resources to pursue.

In collaboration with the UF College of Dentistry, this program involves  faculty-supervised community dentistry rotations for UF dental students and/or residents at community-based sites throughout Florida. The program features service/learning experiences for dental students at the Alachua County Organization for Rural Needs (ACORN) Clinic in Brooker. In conjunction with the clinical training experience, faculty members, residents, and supervised students provice dental services to patients, who would not otherwise be able to obtain these services.

The UF Department of Clinical and Health Psychology places clinical psychology faculty and graduate students at rural sites in SRAHEC's service area. Some of the services provided at these sites include assessment, treatment, and counseling for behavioral health problems, for mental health, and for educational or vocational functioning; in-service education programming for health care workers; and consultative services for primary care patients.

This program places University of Florida College of Pharmacy faculty in the community at the ACORN Clinic in Brooker, the Family Medicine Clinic at Fanning Springs, and Trenton Medical Center (CHC) in Trenton. Faculty and pharmacy students perform activities which work to integrate pharmacy services into the primary care setting, promote an interdisciplinary team of health care providers utilizing the pharmacist, provide patient drug education programming, and provide consultation services for health care staff and patients.

This is a collaborative project of the Leon County Health Department, Bond Community Health Center, FAMU College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Big Bend AHEC. This project allows faculty and students to deliver comprehensive diabetes education to clinic patients as a part of this service-learning initiative.

In partnership with the UF College of Nursing, this program features faculty supervised primary care clinics for nurse practitioner students in several underserved settings. These include: the ACORN Clinic, Marion County Health Department; Alachua County Health Department; Women's Clinic at Reddick; and the Archer Family Health Center.

Through collaboration with Pensacola Junior College, Sacred Heart Health Care Systems and West Florida AHEC, low income patients receive dental services from a dentist and from dental hygiene and assisting students from Pensacola Junior College. This Cooperative provides services that were not previously available in the area.

Special Needs Children Project: In collaboration with the University of Florida Pediatric Residency Program several “special needs children projects” places medical students and a faculty member on site for various lengths of time providing valuable hours of clinical training. These locations include but are not limited to the Brooks Rehabilitative Institute, Florida School for Deaf and Blind, Andrew Robinson Elementary School, Bellah Beal School, Children’s Medical Society, I.M. Sulzbacher, Early Intervention, and Pine Castle.