HPAC.1 HPAC and Your Path to Becoming a CHW

What is HPAC

HPAC stands for Health Professions Affinity Community.

• A team: Students who care about health work together as a crew, not alone.
• A real problem: Each team picks a health problem in its own community and works on it all year.
• Real partners: Teams work with churches, clinics, rec centers and neighbors who already help.
• A real future: You build skills for college and health careers, and you train toward a CHW certificate.

The IDEAS cycle

Every HPAC team moves through five steps:

• Identify: Find a health need that matters to your community.
• Develop: Research it and plan a project with community partners.
• Enact: Carry out the project with and for the community.
• Assess: Check honestly: did it work, and what should change?
• Share: Show what you learned at Scholars' Day and in the community.

HPAC by the numbers

• 2,000 students a year designing HPAC projects in past years
• 15,000 Ohio residents reached by those student projects each year
• 37+ Ohio counties where HPAC schools took part

Source: HPAC brochure (Wright State); NEOMED The Pulse

Your three years in the pathway

Getting your Ohio CHW certificate

Ohio law says you must:

• Be 18 or older: You can train in high school, but you certify as an adult.
• Have a diploma: A high school diploma or an equivalent the Board accepts.
• Finish an approved program: Our program tells the Board in writing when you finish.
• Apply and pay $35: You file your own application with the Ohio Board of Nursing.
• Pass a records check: Request a background check through the Ohio BCI.

How students serve safely

Students under 18 do

• Work with an adult supervisor present or on site
• Serve at schools, clinics, churches and community events
• Bring signed guardian consent before practicum
• Ask an adult when something feels wrong

Students under 18 do not

• Make home visits
• Work alone with clients
• Give medical advice or handle medicine
• Keep a safety worry to themselves

Looking upstream as a team

• What we see: Students at a Glenville school keep missing class with asthma attacks.
• Why it happens (upstream): Old housing with mold and pests, bus fumes near the school, and too few nearby clinics with evening hours.
• What we can build on (assets): The school nurse, a church health ministry, a clinic's mobile van, and students who can teach peers about triggers.

Situation: the practicum shortcut

Situation: Destiny, 16, is at her practicum at a Fairfax community center. A staff member asks her to ride along on a home visit to drop off food. Her supervisor is at lunch.

What should Destiny do?

• Thank the staff member and say she cannot do home visits
• Stay at the center and keep doing her assigned work
• Tell her supervisor about the request when she returns
• Offer another way to help, like packing the food bag

Talk it over

• Who in your family or neighborhood already does CHW work without the title?
• Which health problem near your school would you want your team to tackle?
• What health career could CHW training help you reach?