Learner Policy
MACH OneHealth welcomes learners who are current nursing, medical, PA-C, or APNP students. As an organization, we recognize the importance of including learners into our organization in order to teach them about the mission and values of street medicine and about treating an often neglected patient population.
Long-term learners
MACH OneHealth defines long-term learners as individual or cohorts of students who are interested in participating in our medical outreach for a whole semester/clinical rotation.
Guidelines for applying
All interested learners, or an instructor of a cohort of learners, must fill out an application to indicate their interest in pursuing a long-term learning experience for themselves or their students. MACH OneHealth staff and volunteers will review the applications and select which learners are invited to participate in our medical outreach. Although interested learners are invited to apply for any semester, priority during the fall semester will be given to nursing students, whereas priority during the spring semester will be given to medical, PA-C, and APNP students. No priority will be given to either group during the summer. Deadlines for applying are as follows:
- Fall semester (September – December) – July 1st
- Spring semester (January – May) – November 1st
- Summer (June – August) – April 1st
Expectations for Onboarding
As part of the provision of educational experiences for long-term learners, MACH OneHealth requires certain expectations for learners. All learners must complete the organization’s entire onboarding process prior to joining outreach. The onboarding process will consist of several steps designed to provide MACH OneHealth with necessary information about the learner, as well as to orient the learner to our organization and mission. Additionally, the onboarding process will serve to deliver an introduction to key topics that relate to our organization’s mission and values.
MACH OneHealth’s volunteer coordinator will notify learners of the requirements of the onboarding process and provide the onboarding materials one month in advance of their expected start date. Learners must complete all onboarding requirements by the start date or they will no longer be given the opportunity to participate in our outreach.
Supervision
Individual learners must be supervised by a designated MACH OneHealth volunteer who will act as their clinical supervisor. The clinical supervisor is responsible for meeting with the learner prior to the start of outreach to talk about learning objectives and to answer any questions the learner may have. The clinical supervisor is also responsible for completing any written evaluations required and providing verbal feedback to the learner. Time for debriefing after outreach is also encouraged.
Cohorts of students will be supervised by their instructor who is also required to complete the onboarding process prior to the start of outreach.
Expectations for Outreach
Instructors and student learners will follow the guidance of both the scheduled outreach team manager and the supervising volunteer, if applicable, while out on outreach.
Clinical Hours Available to and Expected of Learners
MACH OneHealth has approximately 10 to 12 clinical hours available per week. These hours are a mix of clinics at the different shelters as well as street rounds in the downtown area and at several different encampments. For cohorts of students, MACH OneHealth has the capacity to take on cohorts of up to 8 learners. The clinical hours available will be divided evenly among learners with one learner being present at each outreach event.
All learners, and cohorts of learners, are expected to participate in all of MACH OneHealth’s different types of outreach in order to learn about all of the different medical services we offer. Exceptions can be made on a case by case basis if outreach times conflict with a learner’s other educational requirements (e.g. class time).
MACH OneHealth recognizes that its medical outreach changes often due to the transient nature of the population we serve, the COVID-19 pandemic, city mandates, and other reasons. Learners must be willing to accept this and be flexible when participating in outreach.
Scheduling
Once MACH OneHealth has accepted a cohort of students to join outreach, the instructor for the cohort will be provided with a schedule of the available outreach dates and times for the entire semester. The instructor must schedule their student learners for each outreach event accordingly, either for the entire semester or in two month increments, and notify the volunteer coordinator of their selections at least two weeks prior to the scheduled start date.
For individual student learners supervised by a designated MACH OneHealth volunteer, the supervising volunteer and the student learner will be provided with a schedule of the available outreach dates and times. If there are any known dates or times that the learner is unable to attend outreach, they must notify their supervising volunteer and the volunteer coordinator at least two weeks prior to the scheduled start date.
It is understood that things change and there may need to be alterations to the learners’ outreach schedules, but a rough schedule for the learners is required. If changes occur during the allotted semester, either the instructor of the cohort or the supervising volunteer must notify the volunteer coordinator as soon as possible.
If any changes are made to MACH OneHealth’s outreach schedule, the instructor of the cohort or the supervising volunteer will be notified as soon as possible so that changes can be made to the learners’ schedules as needed.
Short-term learners
MACH OneHealth defines short-term learners as individuals who are nursing, medical, PA-C, or APNP students who are unable to participate in medical outreach for a whole semester/clinical rotation but would still like to learn about street medicine, as well as individuals who are undergraduate pre-health students who have been volunteering with MACH OneHealth in some capacity for at least four months and would like to observe other types of outreach than those they are able to participate in.
Guidelines for applying
All interested learners must fill out an application to indicate their interest in pursuing a short-term learning experience. Applications must be submitted at least one month prior to the start date.
Expectations for Onboarding
As part of the provision of educational experiences for short-term learners, MACH OneHealth requires certain expectations for learners. All learners must complete the organization’s short-term learner onboarding process prior to observing outreach. This requirement is waived for learners who are already volunteers with MACH OneHealth, as they have previously completed the full onboarding process in order to become a volunteer with the organization.
The onboarding process will consist of several steps designed to provide MACH OneHealth with necessary information about the learner, as well as to orient the learner to our organization and mission. Additionally, this process will serve to deliver an introduction to a few key topics that relate to our organization’s mission and values.
MACH OneHealth’s volunteer coordinator will notify learners of the requirements of the onboarding process and provide the onboarding materials once the learner has been approved to observe our outreach. Learners must complete all onboarding requirements by their start date or they will no longer be given the opportunity to observe our outreach.
Expectations for Outreach
Student learners will follow the guidance of both the scheduled outreach team manager and provider while out on outreach.
Clinical Hours Available to and Expected of Learners
MACH OneHealth expects all interested short-term learners to observe our medical outreach on three individual occasions. Learners are also expected to be willing to both observe more than one type of outreach and observe more than one provider.
Re-evaluation of Learners
MACH OneHealth will re-evaluate its learners’ program including the learners’ roles, responsibilities, and requirements each year beginning on May 1st.