For the fifth year UNMC hosted a Family Medicine Leadership Course for physicians from Shanghai. This year ten faculty, family medicine doctors, and residents participated. They arrived on April 2 and studied at UNMC for two weeks.
Participants come because they are interested in learning more about family medicine practice in the U.S. and at UNMC.
The course includes a history of family medicine, standardization of care, interviewing strategies, dealing with angry patients, delivering bad news, teaching procedures, problem-based learning, changing a patient’s behavior, community and rural practice, and so on. These are paired with practicum, clinical observation, and visits to sites such as Hillcrest Country Estates senior living and rehabilitation facility in Papillion.
One participant, Dr. Ming "Michael" He, said that what he saw and experienced will be helpful for the future. "We cannot copy UNMC’s system exactly when we go back to China, but we found many things that we can translate and implement there. Thank you for your teaching and support."
More than 50 physicians and students have been trained in the course since 2011. The course is a result of a partnership between UNMC and the Minister of Health of Shanghai City, which aims to establish and improve family medicine practice in districts of Shanghai.
Dr. Jeffrey Harrison has been a part of the Family Medicine Leadership Course at UNMC and Family Medicine Symposia in Shanghai and Xi’an since they began. "When we first went to China in 2008, the audience did not understand much about family medicine. But every year we have been able to do more and more. Shanghai has made significant strides toward implementing family medicine practice. A sign of this progress is this year’s Family Medicine Leadership group. Dr. [Kim] Jarzynka and I said that we will have to make our program more sophisticated because this group really understands what we are trying to do."
Dr. Jarzynka agreed that the amount of understanding has grown while she has been involved with the program.
Dr. Zenghan "Hannah" Tong, assistant director of the Asia Pacific Rim Development Program, said that she hoped the trainees would participate in Family Medicine training during the Family Medicine Symposium in Shanghai in the fall. She also encouraged the participants to consider returning to UNMC for a degree in Academic Family Medicine. At least one past participant has sought to deepen her understanding of family medicine at UNMC by applying to join the newly approved Health Services Research and Administration emphasis in academic family medicine.