Population and Community Health Clerkship: Caring for Populations Within Their Communities

The Population and Community Health Clerkship (PCHC) is a team-based, community engaged, two-week immersion experience required of all third-year medical students. Students are placed in small groups directed by academic and community preceptors from a range of professions and disciplines.  Each team’s experience is unique and aspires to include meaningful engagement with a community or population of interest. 

The Community Health Clerkship was a foundational course that has been part of every medical school curriculum at UMass Worcester since its inception.

The overarching goal of the PCHC is to provide relevant real-world context as students expand their understanding of public and population health concepts. Clinicians graduating from UMass Chan should be sensitive to the value of understanding what communities a patient feels are relevant to their health, and be able to use insights from scientific studies of externally-defined populations. 

Interesting in hosting a group of students?  You can reach us at PCHC@umassmed.edu .