Tribal Health System and OPP

Today was a great day and a great learning experience! The group project and presentation this morning was a great experience and a very interesting learning experience. This project gave me a greater appreciation and understanding for what the CHC's had to go through in order to establish themselves in each community. Community health is never just about the health of everyone in the community, but about all the aspects that either make up the individual or community that can directly or indirectly affect their health. Today we found out what it was really like to work together as a unit and construct ideas and plans for a community health system that could truly function in a high needs area. I loved this project because it was interactive and really got us thinking about our roles as physicians in a community, we can't just stop at the office doors if we want to help make an impact. The practical experience and hands-on approach help us to realize that we can make a difference and it showed us how to work through the process. We may not have a perfect plan or system, but we all had great ideas to start from that if developed properly could have a positive effect on a community. It definitely helped to work on our problem solving and critical thinking skills.

The afternoon was also really great because of the introduction to OPP. I think for me and most other individuals in the class this was very exciting. We are all thrilled to be here, but having Dr. Kirsch give demonstrations and have other physicians there to show us some starting points to what we are going to learn over the next year was very exciting. It was fun to really get in there and just start to see what the theory is about and how things are approached. It is only a minute slice of what is too come, but I enjoyed every minute of it and can't wait to really get into things!