Partnering with Students: Our Specialists Clinical Program
A major component of education for anyone hoping to become a healthcare provider is a process called clinical rotations. This multi-year undertaking occurs when students work with a professional within their chosen field, going into offices and hospitals and working with patients one on one. Doing so gives them the hands-on experience they need to flourish in their career and also gives them the opportunity to work with medical issues that they’ve only read about so far.
Covington Women’s Health Specialists providers understand the importance of clinical work. That’s why they partner with multiple universities to serve as preceptors for clinical rotations. Not only does this benefit those ready to jump into the healthcare workforce, but it also benefits Covington Women’s Health Specialists.
“Normally, we see third-year medical students coming through our offices,” Denise Cochran, a Certified Nurse Midwife and Student Coordinator at Covington Women’s Health Specialists stated. Medical students from Augusta University/University of Georgia Partnership complete 6-week rotations with the office. “We tailor our clinical programs to give those students as much experience and exposure as possible. They’re in the office appointments with us, they round in the hospitals, they assist in surgeries, and they also learn in labor and delivery. For many of them, this is their first time in a clinical rotation, so we want to make it as beneficial to them as possible.”
In addition to medical students, Covington Women’s Health Specialists routinely teaches midwifery students and family nurse practitioner students who are required to do an OBGYN rotation. Midwifery students complete rotations both in the office and in the hospital labor and delivery unit. They partner with numerous universities including Emory, Vanderbilt, Frontier Nursing and the University of Georgia, creating future healthcare providers in their offices.
Currently, our practice is partnered with one student who will do her clinical work with them for two years before becoming a midwife in Covington herself. While she earns her degree, she’ll be building relationships with her future patients and solidifying her future role at the very place she will eventually work.
Denise said, “We almost always have someone in the office working with us. It’s such a great program because of that. They get to use our offices to learn, and we get to have most recent medical information taught in the schools brought into our practice.”
Read our student spotlights here:
Leah Topper, Medical Student Year 3 (“MS3”)
