Laurel Falls, Tennessee

Summers are usually temperate with an average of only 13 days exceeding 90 degrees. The heat in the valleys are easily escaped with a trip into the mountains to enjoy the summer wildflowers, mountain vistas, or waterfalls. This photograph was taken by Scott Schwartz on a hike with a group from the archives to Laurel Falls. Scott is now an archivist with the Smithsonian Institution.

Photograph, copyright 1995, by Scott Schwartz

To view a presentation with UPDATED Information about ETSU's Rural Track Program, click here.

The ETSU Rural Track Curriculum

 East Tennessee State University began offering community-based courses in two rural counties in 1992. In fifteen years over 550 students from the ETSU Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health have participated in interdisciplinary learning.

 Through the Kellogg Foundation’s Community Partnerships for Health Professions Education Program a new thirteen course curriculum was offered in rural Johnson and Hawkins counties, Tennessee. The curriculum and courses have been revised over time through a continuous quality improvement process that involved faculty, students and our community partners.

 Interdisciplinary Courses

 Two community based courses are now available to be taken in sequence. The purpose of the courses is to provide enrolled students with a full year’s hands-on experience in assessing, planning and implementing an intervention around a health issue identified by a rural community. Students and faculty from Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, Social Work, Psychology and Environmental Health are formed in section teams. The two courses include:

             Rural Health Research and Practice (Spring)

             Rural Community Health Projects (Fall)

 Please view the final course Presentations form the six 2007 course sections:

• Got Sugar?  Diabetes education with the Wesley Heights Greene County African American community

• Pandemic Flu Preparedness in Hawkins County

• Diabetes in the Regional Hispanic Community

• Diabetes Registry and Obesity prevention intervention with the Johnson County critical access hospital

• Environmental and Occupational Health Needs Assessment and Intervention with Migrant Farmworkers in Unicoi County

• Behavior Risk Assessment at the Unicoi County High School

 Rural Primary Care Track (Medical) Courses

Special targeted experiences with students from additional disciplines are part of the clinical skills courses:

• Identifying community resources in rural communities with Social Work students

• Clinical and psychosocial assessment of stoke patients with Social Work students

• Identifying and understanding patient prescriptions with Pharmacy students

• Behavioral health and primary care issues in case oriented learning sessions with Clinical Psychology students

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