Special Projects
The
program, its faculty and residents are involved in a number of special projects
in service, research and education that make The Penn State/Good Samaritan
Hospital Family & Community Medicine Residency Program unique. The faculty
is a diverse, talented group of practitioners with a wealth of experience in a
variety of practice and teaching settings.
The Good Samaritan Health Systemhas been on the forefront of developing community-based and
home-health care programs as medicine and health care continue to move out of
the hospital and into the community. The residents are able to participate in a
number of ways. Besides the home visits involved in the Family Support Program
discussed below, the ELCO practice also has an active home visit program that
serves eastern Lebanon County, including the Amish and conservative Mennonite
communities there. Additionally there is an ongoing geriatric and terminal care
home visit practice at both residency sites. The hospital has been using the
residency practices to pilot a community based diabetic education
program.
Family Support
Program
The Penn State/Good Samaritan Hospital Health Care Model
for At-Risk Children and Their Families has been an integral part of our office
practice since 1993. Children at-risk for adverse outcomes for behavioral,
developmental, or psychosocial reasons are identified in multiple ways in the
practice and community, and are tracked prenatally and through childhood. A
multidisciplinary team including residents meets regularly to discuss the child
or family's progress and management strategies. Two nurses and one social worker
are available for case management and home visits. Residents are involved with
the Family Support Team in managing the care of their own patients and make home
visits with them. This approach improves the health and development of these
children by encouraging compliance, identifying potential problems early, and
responding with the appropriate mix of community and health services. Students
from Penn State's College of Medicine often do their research projects with this
population, documenting the evolution and effectiveness of several aspects of
this program. As of January 2008, our Family Support Team has followed ovre
1,900 children at three practice sites in Lebanon County.
Research
Opportunities
Opportunities to participate in ongoing practice based
research or develop your own research project abound.
Faculty and resident research projects include
diabetes management, outpatient asthma treatment protocols, management of acute
asthma with nebulized epinephrine. Other research studies include: domestic
violence and pregnancy outcome, once daily gentamicin dosing in hospitalized
patients, and several geriatric projects.
Residents are required to complete an academic
project prior to graduation from the program. This may be in the form of a
clinical research or authoring a publication such as a review paper, or may be a
community service project.
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