Block Clerkship Projects

Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.

Switch View to List View Slideshow

Improving Access to Mental Healthcare for Primary Care Patients

Kaela Mohardt

Access to mental health resources both nationally and in Vermont has become a challenge for both primary care clinics and patients to navigate. Attributed to a multitude of factors including cost barriers, limited health professional availability, societal stigma, this is a behavioral health need that requires attention to improve success of patients receiving mental healthcare. This project focuses on addressing one aspect of that need from a clinical level, creating and updating a referral handout for both patient and provider use. The outcome of this project aims to increase the likelihood of successful patient referral to needed mental health resources.
Evaluating the Awareness of Medical Staff in Regards to the Environmental Effects of Single-use, Disposable Medical Gloves

Nathaniel Moore

This study was performed to evaluate the awareness of medical staff in regards to the environmental effects of single-use, disposable medical gloves. The volume and cost surrounding medical glove usage, waste production, and environmental effects require further attention. This research project outlines awareness as the first step in the right direction with future hopes to find a more sustainable solution.
Brief Overview of Service Animals and the Laws in Vermont

Lara Murnik

Very few people are well versed in the various recommendations, laws, and rights of various types of assistance animals. This problem becomes more apparent as you look into the healthcare system where you see clinicians, other healthcare workers, and hospital systems struggling to navigate this field, especially in regards to their patients. The purpose of this project was to create informational flyers that could help elucidate the different rights and roles of different types of assistance animals, provide a deeper look into service animals specifically in the state of Vermont, and create a universal template for EHR's that clinicians may share and use to better serve their patient's requesting emotional support animals (ESAs).
Accessible and Affordable Medications: MaineCare Edition

Amanda Nattress

Addressing gaps in prescriber tools for accessible and affordable medications regarding the most common diagnoses in primary care. MaineCare Edition.
Compiling Diverse Affordable Housing Resources for Distribution in Primary Care

Arjune Singh Nibber

During primary care office visits, patients often mention concerns regarding social determinants of health that are unable to be fully addressed in the limited time of the appointment. Often, these concerns center around housing concerns and related financial strain. Several such instances were documented during this rotation.
Increasing Advance Directive Participation in Primary Care

Rhys Niedecker

Advance directives are a critical part of patient management and care, yet the majority of adults have not completed the documentation. Using fliers in exam rooms and encouraging provider engagement can help increase the proportion of patients who complete advance care documents in Family Medicine settings.
Patient Education: OTC Medications for Upper Respiratory Infection

Lauren A. Okamoto

Upper respiratory infection (URI) is among the top three diagnoses in the outpatient setting. Symptomatic relief is the reason for the most visits related to this diagnosis in the first couple of weeks after the onset of illness. Patient education on OTC medications for this use is often a component of these visits. The goal of this project is to create a standardized tool for patient education and reference to improve efficiency of education as well as patient understanding and future use of resources.
Tracking Home Blood Glucose through MyChart

Zachary T. Osborn

Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) is a crucial tool in the management of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics on insulin, and for Type 2 Diabetics who are titrating medications and/or undergoing lifestyle changes. Patients often fail to bring in their SMBG readings (or monitor at all) for a variety of reasons, hindering efforts to adjust their therapy. This project aimed to address this issue by educating patients and attendings about EPIC's ability to log blood glucose measurements through MyChart.
Tracking Home Blood Glucose through MyChart

Zachary T. Osborn

Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) is a crucial tool in the management of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics on insulin, and for Type 2 Diabetics who are titrating medications and/or undergoing lifestyle changes. Patients often fail to bring in their SMBG readings (or monitor at all) for a variety of reasons, hindering efforts to adjust their therapy. This project sought to address this gap through educating patients and providers about the EPICs ability to track SMBG readings submitted through MyChart.
Tracking Home Blood Glucose through MyChart

Zachary T. Osborn

Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) is a crucial tool in the management of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics on insulin, and for Type 2 Diabetics who are titrating medications and/or undergoing lifestyle changes. Patients often fail to bring in their SMBG readings (or monitor at all) for a variety of reasons, hindering efforts to adjust their therapy. This project sought to address this gap through educating patients and providers about the EPICs ability to track SMBG readings submitted through MyChart.
Approach to Providing Culturally Sensitive Gynecologic and Obstetric Care for Somali Women

Izabella Ostrowski

Many refugees have fled Somalia over the past 30 years due to political instability and civil war. Since 1980, over 8,000 refugees have settled in Vermont, with about 9% of refugees being from Somalia. Community Health Centers of Burlington (CHCB) provides prenatal and primary care to many Somali women in the community. There are known gynecologic and obstetric health disparities for Somali women, such as significantly lower completion rates of mammography and pap smears than non-Somali patients. Research has shown that an understanding of cultural health beliefs and values are crucial for creating tailored prevention programs for refugee women. This project aims to outline several examples of beliefs, values and traditions of Somali women that are important for students and providers to know in order to provide the most culturally sensitive care.
Accessibility and Normalization of wearable pronoun identification in healthcare professionals

Dinukie-Chantal Perera

Healthcare can be an incredibly intimidating machine to all demographics of patients. One uniquely challenged group are patients who are gender diverse, trans, and/or gender nonconforming. This group of patients experiences systemic discrimination through institutional practices embedded in healthcare.

Gender affirming care can be improved on many levels, but one straightforward and actionable way to support gender diversity and demonstrate enthusiasm and awareness for the community is to encourage the use of pronoun pins/ labels in individuals willing to use them.
Patient Education: Sexual Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, and Healthy Relationships

Elise A. Prehoda

Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence are a public health crisis across the United States. In Vermont alone, nearly 7% of the population experiences sexual and/or domestic violence annually. Despite these numbers, less than 20% of those affected seek assistance. Increased access to education materials regarding these topics will serve to increase dialogue with at risk patients who might otherwise refrain from discussions on home or social environment. By increasing discourse and education, we hope to more frequently identify and assist patients who are experiencing violence in their relationships as well as prevent the formation of unhealthy relationships at the level of adolescence.
Differentiating Annual Wellness Visits and Health Maintenance Visits

Benjamin N. Price

Due to recent changes in workflow at the office, many visits that should be Medicare Annual Wellness Visits are incorrectly scheduled as health maintenance visits (yearly physical). These mistakes are not always identified leading to confusion for both patients and providers and unnecessary bills for the patient
Cervical Cancer Screening in the LGBTQ+ Community: Dispelling Common Misconceptions and Improving Patient Comfort

Rebecca B. Rawlings

LGBTQ+ patients are more likely to forgo cervical cancer screening due to common misconceptions/misguidance about who needs screening and increased likelihood to experience emotional and/or physical discomfort during screening visits. This project aims to educate LGBTQ+ patients about cervical cancer screening and provide them with tools to improve their experiences during screening visits.
Cervical Cancer Screening in the LGBTQ+ Community: Dispelling Common Misconceptions and Improving Patient Comfort

Rebecca B. Rawlings

LGBTQ+ patients are more likely to forgo cervical cancer screening due to common misconceptions/misguidance about who needs screening and increased likelihood to experience emotional and/or physical discomfort during screening visits. This project aims to educate LGBTQ+ patients on cervical cancer screening recommendations and provide them with tools to improve their experiences during screening visits.
Lifestyle Modifications to Support Mental Health

Alexa W. Rosenthall
Increasing healthcare delivery to the Abenaki people through health screenings

Warrick Sahene

Utilizing health screenings can increase the number of Abenaki individuals identified with comorbidities related to diabetes and hypertension. Education and resources for health maintenance are also provided to this patient population through physician counseling.
Addressing Access and Installation of Appropriate Child Safety Seats within Fairfield County

Alexandra Sarkis

Motor vehicle crashes account for a vast majority of all fatal injuries in children and adolescents. Child safety seats have been shown to reduce mortality from motor vehicle crashes greatly; however, several studies have demonstrated that as many as 9 out of 10 car seats are installed incorrectly. Given the evident reduction in mortality when using a child safety restraint appropriately, the goal of this project was to educate the community about proper car seat installation techniques and to provide additional resources for families interested in obtaining a car seat safety check within the county. An additional goal was to provide transparency and subsequently improve access to car seats for families who may not be able to obtain their own.
Nature Is The Best Medicine

Nathan Schweitzer

This project examined the cost of mental health diagnosis on the health care system and how interactions with green space and nature increase mental health wellbeing. A Vermont state government program to increase access to state parks through primary care providers offices is highlighted. Interviews were conducted with a community psychologist discussing interaction with nature and its effects on mental health. The second interview was with a member of the volunteer board for the Governors council on fitness discussing the origins of the state park program.
Easy and accurate transition between common beta blockers: a QI project

Sam Short and Amalia Kane

Hypertension is a common condition that often worsens with disease progression and/or age alone. The management of hypertension often requires multiple drug therapy. Beta blockers can be useful for this, and are often prescribed for other comorbid conditions such as angina or heart failure. Yet, not all beta blockers have the same effect on blood pressure and it can be advantageous to transition patients to non-selective agents such as carvedilol. However, dose conversions are not 1:1 and inappropriate transition can be dangerous. No readily accessible resources are available to aid the clinical management of this problem. This project aims to compare two common beta blockers to bridge this gap.
Increasing Screening for Barriers to Transportation at a Family Medicine Clinic in Rural Upstate NY

Noah Sorkow

Inconsistent access to reliable transportation is a significant barrier to medical care in rural New York. Lack of transportation results in missed medical appointments, poor management of chronic conditions, and increased preventable emergency room visits. Increasing routine screening for this social determinant of health can reveal underlying barriers to care, promote referrals to case workers and increase resource allocation. This project sought to increase routine screening via the promotion of smart phrases to be included in routine wellness documentation in the EMR, in conjunction with a didactic session for current family medicine residents.
CBT in Primary Care

Brianna J. Spano

This is a community improvement project designed to address the growing need for and shortage of mental health care in Vermont. The project focuses on creating a brief training tool and guide for primary care physicians to be able to incorporate cognitive behavioral therapy in their practice.
Bridging the Gap between Healthcare and Haircare

Devan Spence

Patients are likely to see their barbers and beauticians more often than their primary care physicians, when applicable. This project is centered around empowering "paraprofessionals" such as hairdressers and barbers with knowledge to bridge the gap in identifying skin cancer early in its course. Hairdressers were interviewed at two separate locations, "The prestige" and "Dave's Barbershop." They were presented with questionnaires before and after attending 10-minute presentation on identifying various types of skin cancers and reviewing a brochure. Results indicated hairdressers felt more confident in identifying skin cancer post-presentation, on average scored themselves 4 points higher on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 representing feeling the most confident).
Barriers to Exercise: Fitness Made Simple

John A. Steinharter MS

Lifestyle modification is a necessary component of managing chronic illnesses in order to obtain the best outcomes. Exercise has been shown to be efficacious at improving outcomes in a number of different clinical contexts. Patient adherence to exercise as a lifestyle modification is lower than desired due to multifactorial etiology including socioeconomic constraints, disability, chronic pain, and motivation. This project attempts to address all four with a site specific educational pamphlet.