AHEC Scholars is a two-year program designed to supplement and broaden a student’s healthcare training in rural and underserved populations. In order to become an AHEC Scholar, students are required to complete a minimum of 40 hours of both educational and clinical training each year, for a cumulative total of 80 educational hours and 80 clinical hours over the course of the two-year AHEC Scholars program. The AHEC Scholars Program has provided many pathways to meet these program requirements, which are discussed below. 

We have created an AHEC Scholars Online Platform where you will submit completed materials for approval, access your gradebook as you complete requirements, and engage with one another and our AHEC staff. You should have already been enrolled in the Online Platform (check your "Welcome to AHEC Scholars!" email). If you have problems logging in or forgot your log-in information, please email Mandy Hedstrom at amanda.hedstrom@montana.edu.

Check Out Program Due Dates

Educational Hours

AHEC Scholars requires educational training in eight core topic areas including: Interprofessional Education, Behavioral Health Integration, Social Determinants of Health, Cultural Competency, Practice Transformation, Connecting Communities & Supporting Health Professionals, Virtual Learning & Telehealth, and Current and Emerging Health Issues. In order to be an AHEC Scholar you must complete a minimum of 40 hours of elective educational training each academic year, for a cumulative total of 80 hours over the course of the two-year AHEC Scholars program. 

Before the thought of 80 additional educational hours causes you stress, we have good news! There are a variety of pathways you can take to meet this educational requirement. Scholars can explore credit and non- credit options, and even combine the two pathways in order to meet the educational requirements while accommodating a busy academic schedule.

If you are interested in taking either an online or in person IPE course for credit, then any approved IPE course of 1.0 credit or more equates to 40 hours of educational learning. See the list of approved courses. If you choose to take this option to meet your educational hours, you will have to submit an academic course log at the end of the semester that you take that course. 

List of Approved Courses

 

*If you have taken an IPE course that covers all, or the majority, of the eight core topic areas and would like it to count towards your AHEC Scholars educational requirement, e-mail the course syllabus to the AHEC Scholars Program Staff for approval at  amanda.hedstorm@montana.edu.

AHEC Scholars interested in self-directed education, can utilize the Online Platform, which has educational activities on each of the core topic areas (Ted Talks, Podcasts, Webinars, etc.) In order to receive credit for the educational activity completed in the Online Platform an evaluation is submitted, and then all completed hours show up in the scholars’ gradebook. 

In addition to the Online Platform, Scholars are also able to submit relevant IPE experiences for approval. Any conference, presentation, training, webinar, continuing education, etc. that covers at least one of the core topic areas can count towards your educational requirements. You can also refer the AHEC Scholars Calendar for a list of pre-approval events! 

Check out the tutorial videos for more explanation! 

Clinical Hours

For most academic programs, clinical hours are embedded within the curriculum for health professions students and far exceed 40 hours a semester. If your program requires at least 40 hours per academic year of interprofessional clinical/community-based work then you do not need to complete additional clinical hours. In situations where your academic program does not already require clinical/community-based rotations where a service is provided, then you will need to arrange that opportunity with your faculty contact PRIOR to applying to the AHEC Scholars program.

Below are the criteria for what can count towards clinical hours:

  • All clinical hours counted towards the AHEC Scholars program must be interdisciplinary, meaning that you must interact with at least one other health professional or health profession student from a different
  • A health service must be delivered in order to count towards your clinical
    • Community-based-experiences such as health fairs, practicums, internship, job shadows can also count as clinical hours as long as a health service is provided and the experience is interdisciplinary.

At the end of each academic year all Scholars are required to submit a Clinical Hours Log through the AHEC Scholars Online Platform. 

  • All students must indicate the total clinical hours completed over the academic year. Please list the actual clinical hour amount, even if exceeds the 40-hour clinical requirement for AHEC Scholars.
  • Please submit EACH clinical site you completed hours at, along with your best guess for the number of hours you completed there. 

Professionalism

There are fundamental values of professionalism that are universal and apply to all disciplines. These include, but are not limited to, moral values such as honesty, respect, integrity and trustworthiness; values that are specific to one’s profession (e.g., confidentiality, self-determination), to society (e.g., commitment to excellence and cultural awareness), to oneself (e.g., self-reflection); and humanistic values such as empathy and compassion. Throughout the AHEC Scholars Program you will engage in conversations with other disciplines around complex health topics, we expect these universal values to be present in those discussions.

Meeting program deadlines with the appropriate documentation is also required to maintain eligibility in the program. In instances of non-responsiveness, we operate on a 3-mark-system. The AHEC Scholars team will reach out to the student to submit necessary documentation (1), then will reach out to the program contact and scholar (2), and finally the scholar will receive a final warning (3). If the scholar does not respond at this point, they will then be dropped from the AHEC Scholars program. Please be sure to check your e-mail regularly for communication from the AHEC Scholars leadership team and your AHEC Scholars advisor.