David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Community Medicine in Koreatown
This course is designed to provide students with a greater understanding of the health care among the indigent immigrant populations of the Los Angeles County. Students will be spending time at a community facility located in Koreatown described below. Most clinic sessions will be held on weekends and evenings. In addition to the clinical responsibilities described below, students are required to attend the orientation and at least one lecture/discussion. They are also expected to complete writing assignments or community projects (e.g., developing patient educational materials or other resources that are culturally appropriate for the population) to complement their learning experience.
Clinic Description
The Koreatown facility provides in-depth patient education, referral information, and counseling regarding health care needs to those who are receiving or have received care from other facilities but are looking for additional help in understanding their care and assistance in navigating the health care system. This is not a primary health care clinic. Patients will be referred back to their regular providers or to other appropriate practitioners or programs. Occasionally, direct medical services (e.g., Blood Pressure, Diabetes and Cholesterol screenings) will be provided, on an as needed basis. A majority of the patients will be low-income monolingual immigrants from Korea and Latin America with no or limited health insurance coverage.
Clinical Responsibilities
Under close supervision of the attending physician, students are expected to perform pertinent history and physicals. They are also encouraged to apply their counseling and communication skills to provide information in ways that the patients with limited English proficiency and/or literacy can adequately understand. Most of the non-English speaking patients will speak Korean or Spanish. Interpretation services may be provided at many of the sessions, but cannot be guaranteed.
Learning Objectives
- Gain an understanding of the various health problems and related challenges that indigent immigrants face in the Los Angeles County.
- Gain an understanding of the various socio-demographic conditions (i.e., low SES, lack of health insurance, language barrier) that may influence an immigrant’s health and health care.
- Demonstrate an ability to perform pertinent history and physicals and demonstrate effective doctor patient communication with culturally, linguistically, and socio-economically diverse immigrant patients.
- Gain a greater understanding of the current safety net system.
- Explore and identify other low cost care outside of the traditional safety net (i.e., non-profit programs, patient assistance programs) that may be appropriate for these patients.
- Gain experience with developing patient education materials or programs for patients with limited English proficiency and/or low health literacy
Contact
For more information in regards to the clinic please contact Dr. Angela Jo. For information on enrollment in the elective and selective please contact Bahij Austin.