The International Family Medicine Clinic Student Interest Group is a student lead organization that works closely with The International Family Medicine Clinic (IFMC) to help bridge the gap between the US healthcare system and Johnson County’s international patient population receiving care.
Our goals and missions include:
- Helping our international and refugee populations establish a primary care home at IFMC
- Educating our patients on travel medicine for visits home
- Developing and growing a sensitivity towards diverse views on healthcare impacted by international cultural upbringings
- Collaborating with other healthcare professionals to better treat our patients and their families
Student involvement in this group is key to its success, can be seen in a diverse array of forms:
- Non-Clinic Based Needs:
- Develop language appropriate resources on primary care for international patients
- Complete literature review of African medical journals or refugee health literature to better understand medical practices from refugee country of origin
- Medical Interpretation:
- Establish a pool of in-person interpreters with interpreter level or native speaker level skills for languages such as Arabic, French, Lingala, and Swahili
- Patient Follow-Up/Relationship Building:
- In-clinic shadowing
- Develop/participate in a patient-buddy system, which includes one week follow up calls to ensure patient’s understanding of visit and follow-up instructions
- Establish a system to help refugees and immigrants navigate the US healthcare system
- Post-Pandemic:
- Go out into the community to visit churches and neighborhood centers to inform individuals of services offered by IFMC
- Partnership Building and Clinic Expansion:
- Determine better ways to partner with Mobile Clinic
- Continue working with the Catherine McAuley Center in Cedar Rapids to become the primary visit for the post-arrival exam for all new refugee arrivals in Johnson County
- Continue working to extend clinic to daytime hours at IRL East this fall and welcoming brand-new arrivals.
We welcome all students with an interest in the care of international and refugee populations to come on this marvelous journey of learning and service with us!
IFMC Student Interest Group Leadership:
09/08/2021