Wisconsin Idea Seminar Eyes Eau Claire Residency

Forty UW faculty and staff recently visited the Department of Family Medicine's (DFM) Eau Claire residency to learn more about how the program puts the Wisconsin Idea into practice.

The visitors were participants in the Wisconsin Idea Seminar, a five-day statewide bus tour that immerses faculty in the educational, industrial, social, and political realities of Wisconsin.

Welcoming the visitors were Richard McClaflin, MD, director of the Eau Claire campus and residency, and Bruce Barker, president of Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC). Their joint introduction provided an overview of each institution and described the collaborative nature of health and technical education in the region.

Visitors then participated in one of five small-group sessions:

• Community Relationships, facilitated by DFM faculty Mark Gideonsen, MD, and Jennifer Eddy, MD;
• The Educational Experience, facilitated by DFM faculty Deb Raehl, DO, and with DFM residents Steve Steinmetz, MD, and Brian Gaskill, DO, as panelists;
• Partnerships, facilitated by Ellen Kirking, CVTC health education director, and Joe Hegge, CVTC vice president;
• Wisconsin Idea, facilitated by Richard McClaflin, MD; and
• Campus tour, facilitated by Kathleen Ertz, MS, education coordinator for the Eau Claire residency

After the sessions, the visitors reconvened to socialize and exchange ideas about what they had just learned. According to Dr. McClaflin, "a lot of people were surprised that such a high-quality educational program exists outside of an academic medical center, in a community this size, and in a competitive health care environment."

But it does exist in Eau Claire, for one reason: collaboration. According to Dr. McClaflin, "we rely on community educational resources for our patient care and teaching."

Indeed, since 2004, the Eau Claire residency program and family medicine clinic has been located at the Health Education Center (HEC), a state-of-the-art medical facility jointly developed with CVTC. A dental clinic affiliated with Marquette University's School of Dentistry also provides services at the HEC.

This arrangement makes the HEC a unique medical education "hub" in which family medicine residents share educational experiences with students in CVTC's numerous health care education programs. Those experiences include use of CVTC's state-of-the-art human patient simulator, one of approximately 100 in the country.

"We can coordinate group exercises in which CVTC students interact with our residents and physicians using the human patient simulator to implement an interdisciplinary team approach," said Kathleen Ertz, MS, the residency's student services coordinator.

This collaborative model is not only unique but also effective. "The HEC allowed us to do things we couldn't have dreamed of doing ourselves," Ertz continued. "Because we all came into this together, the spirit of cooperation is ingrained. It has set the tone for students, residents, teachers, and even for me."

And the spirit of cooperation translates into improved care for people in the Chippewa Valley. "As an example, sharing resources enables us to get better equipment, thereby offering greater benefit to the community," Ertz said. "This facility has opened up so many doors for patients in the region."

Dr. McClaflin seconds that assessment. "The success of this residency depends on its relevance to the community," he said. "That's the Wisconsin Idea, and here, we're living it."