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ORIENT.E CHW Work as a Path to the Health Professions
For college students: experience, your pre-health portfolio and humility
Your materials
Slides (PowerPoint) Handout (Word)
For instructors
Facilitator guide Printable pre and post tests Quiz (LMS import)
What you will learn
- Explain how CHW work prepares you for health professions
- List the four parts of the pre-health portfolio
- Make a plan to balance classes, CHW training and practicum
- Show humility and professionalism as a student in community
Start here
Before you treat patients, what do you need to learn from the neighborhoods they live in?
Lesson
Why CHW work matters for your future
- Medicine and PA: You see how housing, income and trust shape whether people get and follow care.
- Nursing: You practice listening, teaching and home visits in the places patients live.
- Public health: You collect data, lead outreach and plan community projects with residents.
- Social work: You navigate benefits, advocate with clients and work across agencies.
Your pre-health portfolio
Pathway E students build four pieces as they go:
- Signed hours log: Every contact and practicum hour, signed by your supervisor.
- Three reflections: Each on social and political determinants you saw in real work.
- IDEAS or research project: A community project or study, done with partners, with results shared.
- Supervisor letter: A letter from your practicum supervisor about your work and growth.
Helper mindset and partner mindset
Helper mindset
- I am here to fix this community
- I already know what people need
- This is a line on my resume
- I talk more than I listen
Partner mindset
- I am here to learn from this community
- Residents are the experts on their lives
- This is real work with real people
- I listen first and follow local leaders
What the chart does not show
- What we see: A patient in Fairfax has high blood sugar at every visit, and the chart says nonadherent.
- Why it happens (upstream): Her insulin costs too much, her store sells little fresh food, and she works shifts that change weekly.
- What we can build on (assets): A CHW, a church food ministry, a community health center, a neighbor who drives, and her own determination.
Balancing school and CHW training
| Time of year | Focus |
|---|---|
| Busy exam weeks | Lighter online lessons; tell your site early |
| Regular weeks | Steady lessons, one live session, practicum shifts |
| Breaks and summer | More practicum hours and your IDEAS project |
| Application season | Request your supervisor letter early |
Professional as a student in community
- Privacy first: No client stories with names or details on social media, in essays or in class.
- Stay in scope: You are a CHW here, not a doctor or nurse. No diagnosing or medical advice.
- Show up: Come when you said you would. Communities remember who keeps promises.
- Give credit: Name the residents and partners whose work made your project possible.
Situation: the essay story
Situation: Priya, a pre-med student, wants to write her application essay about Mr. Green, a client in Slavic Village whose story moved her. She plans to use his name, age and illness.
What should Priya do?
- Focus the essay on what she learned and how she grew
- Remove the name and any details that could identify him
- Never share his health information without permission
- Ask her supervisor to review the privacy of her draft
Talk it over
- What do you hope community members will teach you?
- How will you keep your commitments during exam weeks?
- What kind of clinician or professional do you want to become?
Study sheet
The big idea: CHW work teaches future health professionals to see the whole person and community, and to partner with humility.
Key points
- CHW work shows how social and political determinants shape health, something clinics rarely see.
- The pre-health portfolio has four parts: signed hours log, three reflections, a project, and a supervisor letter.
- Come with a partner mindset: residents are the experts on their own lives.
- Map the program onto your academic calendar early and keep your commitments.
- As a CHW student, stay in scope and refer medical questions to providers.
- Never share a client's identifiable story in essays, class or social media.
Remember
- Portfolio: hours log, 3 reflections, IDEAS or research project, supervisor letter
- Passing score 75%, live attendance 90%, practicum 130 hours
- No client names or identifying details in essays or posts
- Ask about college credit with partner colleges before you register
Ask yourself
- Am I here to learn with this community, or only to build my resume?
- How will what I learn here change how I practice later?
Vocabulary
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Health professions | Careers in health such as medicine, nursing, physician assistant, public health and social work. |
| Pre-health portfolio | A collection of your signed hours, reflections, project and supervisor letter. |
| Reflection | A short piece of writing about what you saw, felt and learned, and what you will do next. |
| Social determinants of health | The conditions where people live, learn, work and play that shape their health. |
| Political determinants of health | How laws, policies, voting and government decisions shape the conditions that affect health. |
| Cultural humility | A lifelong practice of self-reflection, learning from others and fixing power imbalances. |
| IDEAS cycle | Our action model: Identify, Develop, Enact, Assess, Share. |
| Supervisor letter | A letter from your practicum supervisor describing your work, skills and growth. |
| Scope of practice | The tasks a worker is trained and allowed to do in their role. |
| Confidentiality | Keeping a client's personal and health information private unless they consent or the law requires sharing. |
Real-life situations
The medical question
At a health fair in Glenville, a woman learns Tyler is a pre-med student and asks him whether she should stop her cholesterol pill because of muscle aches.
What to do
- Explain that he is a CHW student, not a medical provider
- Do not advise her to stop or keep the medicine
- Encourage her to call her doctor or pharmacist soon, and offer to help
- Note the contact and tell the supervisor
Why: Medication questions belong to providers, and staying in scope protects the client and the student.
Exam week conflict
Nadia has a Saturday outreach shift in Hough during finals week and a big chemistry exam on Monday.
What to do
- Tell her site supervisor as early as possible
- Offer to swap to a different shift
- Do not simply skip the shift without notice
- Add exam weeks to her practicum calendar next term
Why: Early notice keeps trust with the site and community, which matters more than any single shift.
Wanting clinical tasks
Sam, a pre-PA student at a practicum site in Lorain, asks to take patients' blood pressure on his own because he learned it in a college class.
What to do
- Explain that CHW tasks follow program training and site rules
- Ask whether he has passed the program's vital signs lab with RN sign-off
- Do the task only as trained, approved and supervised
- Find other learning, like outreach or teaching, in the meantime
Why: In our program, nursing-related skills are taught and signed off by an RN before students use them.
Activity: My path and my portfolio plan
About 20 minutes.
- Write the health profession you plan to enter and two things you hope CHW work will teach you.
- Mark exam weeks and breaks on a semester calendar, and plan practicum shifts around them.
- Set up your hours log and a folder for your three reflections.
- Write one sentence describing the kind of professional you want to become.
- Post your plan in the Pathway E discussion and respond to one classmate.
Post-test
Ten questions. You need 75% to pass, with one retake. Your result is saved in this browser.