USC-Bennettsville Primary Care Education Project
Education and Research Director:
Marsharika Moody
(843)479-1350
moodyusc@bellsouth.net
Social Worker:
Virgina "Tina" Stewart
(843)479-1309
vastew@bellsouth.net
Address:
999 Cheraw Hwy
Bennettsville, SC 29512

The University of South Carolina Rural Primary Care Education Program is designed to increase health care services to South Carolina's medically underserved rural areas. Model rural health care centers are established in the state's medically needy areas to train health profession students on site, and as a byproduct, to provide direct health care services. During any given month, there may be as many as two medical students, two graduate students in social work, and two graduate students in public health training at each program site.

The projects focus on four major activities:

(1) Giving students real-life experience in a rural career by sending them to a model family medicine practice in a rural community.
(2) Training medical, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and social work students to work together as a team to solve a community's health care needs.
(3) Educating students about wellness management for rural populations
(4) Introducing students to the application of modern technology (telemedicine/computerized office) in a rural setting.

Program Significance

One of the biggest barriers in recruiting young doctors and nurses to small towns is that medical and nursing schools have historically trained students in big-city hospitals. Students get used to having a variety of specialists and high tech equipment at their disposal, and they become uncomfortable with the idea of practicing with fewer resources. In the Rural Primary Care Education Program, students see a more realistic sample of patients and health problems than in a hospital setting. Most office patients are ambulatory and healthier than those seen in a hospital clinic. More opportunity exists, therefore, for a positive impact through education and prevention, practice aspects the project emphasizes.

With the genesis of the USC-Bennettsville Primary Care Education Program, all third-year USC School of Medicine students will have the opportunity to train in a family practice setting in a rural, underserved area of South Carolina. Additionally, through the Dean's Rural Primary Care Clerkship, the USC School of Medicine and the Medical University of South Carolina have made their respective rural primary care training sites available to medical students from each institution.

The Rural Primary Care Education Program also performs valuable community outreach functions in addition to student education and clinical care. The centers serve as platforms from which to launch community health screening events and public health education programs. These community-based, student-led health projects significantly advance public wellness in the areas where the centers operate.

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