Welcome to Get PHED Up!!

Previously, a group of medical students initiated a program entitled, "Get-PHED UP: Preventive Healthcare in the Emergency Department."  This program was based on the fact that a large percentage of visits to the ED are due to preventable healthcare or lifestyle related problems. In addition, the ED serves as the only source of healthcare for many of the patients that present.  Evidence suggests a potential benefit of providing preventive healthcare in such a setting. The Get-PHED UP program was initiated and is run voluntarily by medical students, typically those involved in the Emergency Medicine Interest Group (EMIG). It serves to expose students to preventive health in the emergency medicine setting early in their medical education.  It also addresses many of the focus areas and goals of Healthy People 2010, a program in which emergency medicine has a deep and vested interest.

As well as offering a low cost resource to the ED, this voluntary program has an obvious benefit for both patients and the students who participate. Pre-clinical medical students do not have many opportunities to interact with patients.  These students are eager to have patient exposure, but are limited by schedules and by student-based clinic availability.  This program allows students to speak with many patients in a real life setting and is not restricted by office or clinic hours.  They gain valuable experience in communication skills, talking about difficult or uncomfortable issues, learn about preventive healthcare issues, and become familiar with local agencies to which they can refer patients during their clinical years.  In addition, they are exposed to the practice of Emergency Medicine as a career choice, and they see that preventive health can be integrated into the practice of EM.

For undergraduate, pre-medical students, this program can provide a first exposure to medicine as a career. While the interest in medicine is already in place, many of these students have no first-hand knowledge of what the medical setting is like or may be misinformed about the practice of emergency medicine.  The addition of undergraduate students to the curriculum also allows participating students to serve as mentors, a skill that most medical students do not have the opportunity to develop.

For the past two years, the EMIG at ECU's Brody School of Medicine has been successful in obtaining financial support of this program through The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine's grant program.

Mission:  This project is aimed at improving access to preventive healthcare information and counseling for Emergency Department (ED) patients by utilizing medical students.  Also to have this program duplicated at other schools and stimulate research in the area of preventive health and emergency medicine.

This program was created by Patrick O'Malley through the generous support of the North Carolina Albert Schweitzer Fellows Program.  Any students or schools wishing to start this program, please contact Lisa Cowan (LRC0409@mail.ecu.edu) so you can be listed on this web site.