SC Area Health Education Consortium

The South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC) builds and supports the healthcare workforce South Carolina needs through a focus on recruiting, retaining, and educating healthcare professionals. South Carolina AHEC connects students and professionals with the tools, training, and resources necessary to provide quality healthcare, with a focus on primary care for rural and underserved communities.

South Carolina AHEC Health Professions Student (HPS) Program Coordinators serve as community site coordinators and are a major resource for facilitating student placements, orienting students to communities, and organizing student projects. There are four different AHEC regions and each region has dedicated AHEC HPS coordinators. The coordinators will contact students in the weeks leading up to the start of the rotation. Some will maintain contact throughout the rotation and visit students at their site. AHEC arranges housing for students when needed (and available) for the clerkship. AHEC coordinators:

Arrange student housing (in areas where housing is provided) and help settle students into housing upon arrival in rural communities;
Are the first point of contact for preceptors regarding medical student scheduling and clerkship curriculum;
Recruit new preceptors;
Maintain a close working relationship with MUSC clerkship faculty;
Introduce students to practice, hospital, community, community resources;
Are a constant resource and point of contact for community/practice projects (in some areas, students may work alongside site coordinators on established projects, i.e. Winnsboro);
Provide guidance in arranging patient home visits;
Offer limited technology assistance (often student must be referred to student coordinators);
Are ALWAYS available to provide support and assistance to students and preceptors.

Interprofessional Team Case Conferences (ITCCs): South Carolina AHEC’s Interprofessional Team Case Conference (ITCC) brings students from various professions (Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, Social Work, Physical Therapy, Medicine, Public Health, Pharmacy, Community Health Workers) and academic institutions across the state (MUSC, USC, A.T. Still, VCOM, Francis Marion University) together to discuss a case of a patient in a rural, underserved area of South Carolina and to develop a longitudinal care plan.

Institute for Primary Care: Join the dialogue about the future of primary care: What should healthcare look like in the future? Put what you've learned into practice with this series of online seminars featuring case-based learning, guest speakers, and chances to interact with interprofessional groups of health professions students and providers from across the state.

South Carolina AHEC Scholars: Are you interested in rural and underserved care? If so, consider applying for the SC AHEC Scholars program for an opportunity to collaborate with fellow health profession students from various disciplines and institutions across the state. The South Carolina AHEC Scholars program is a part of a national initiative to prepare tomorrow’s health professionals to become leaders in interprofessional, transformative practice who serve those who need it the most.

Online Learning Modules for Health Professions Students: Live, webinar, online modules and on-demand videos are available for health professions students via the AHEC Learning Portal registration system.

Rural Incentive Grants and Recruitment & Retention Programs: To address the maldistribution of healthcare providers in South Carolina, the Rural Incentive Grant Program provides financial incentives to qualified healthcare providers who contract to practice in rural and underserved areas of the state for up to 4 years. South Carolina AHEC also offers enhanced incentives for the Rural Incentive Grant Program for graduates from South Carolina family medicine residency programs and other recruitment and retention resources.