VCOM - Virginia 2018 Yearbook

A MESSAGE FROM THE VIRGINIA DEAN

Embracing the Mission of Service

JAN M. WILLCOX, DO, FACOFP

O u r Mission is to serve. Specifically, to medically serve rural and historically underserved regions and to conduct research and daily actions that enhance the health and healthcare in these areas. Our students recognize that this requires a commitment and focus during their time at VCOM and even more so when they leave VCOM to serve the broader community. Our dedication to service is manifested through the efforts of our entire VCOM family. It is a continuum of action that involves the medical contribution and guidance of our alumni, the daily conduct of our faculty and staff, and outreach into our local community to cultivate and nurture a sustainable generation of clinicians dedicated to providing quality healthcare to those who would otherwise remain, or become, medically underserved. Our first graduates began to establish their practices following residencies in 2010. In the eight years since, more than 100 alumni from the Virginia campus have returned to rural and underserved communities as practicing

physician preceptors for our third-and fourth-year students. Of Virginia campus Alumni Classes of 2007–2012, 55% of graduates have entered primary care practice and 66% first practiced in Appalachian counties or cities. students who are recipients of the Health Professions Scholarship Program. Upon graduation, these students enter residencies with the Department of Defense and commit to train with and treat our nation’s heroes in the Air Force, Army or Navy. Here they fulfill a unique service mission. We have established year- round clinics in the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador that provide our students with the opportunity to serve those in severe need. These sites provide experience for our students that mirrors the issues of those living in poverty without access to healthcare in any country in the world. Experienced, bilingual, in-country VCOM clinical faculty act as preceptors to our students in these settings providing culturally appropriate expertise. These VCOM clinics Each year we have a significant number of

allow us to make a continuous, sustainable impact in local communities through our partnerships. Since inception, VCOM has performed outreach to local area high school students, which has resulted in several of these same students progressing through college and becoming VCOM students. VCOM has also developed the Summer Enrichment Experience (SEE) program which promotes science and medicine to area high school students, allowing them to experience a week participating in medical school with medical student mentors. We hope not only to encourage these students to pursue careers in science and medicine but also to gain an appreciation of behaviors that are fundamental to healthy lifestyles. Those who have gone before have set the example of service by their leadership. Each day on campus our students have embraced this leadership and made it their own, and each day they strengthen the example for those who will enter VCOM and embrace the mission of service in the future.

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