Moving from medical student placement to a community-academic partnership with a rural community

This article explains a partnership-based community education model, which uses as an example a partnership between the Center for Healthy Communities in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and the rural Marion area of central Wisconsin. MCW is similar to other medical schools in that it has a strong history and philosophy of placing students in communities for educational purposes. This article describes how the Center for Healthy Communities is moving beyond student placement to true partnership building. The center followed four stages of development as it built a partnership with this rural Wisconsin community: (1) establish and build relationships, (2) develop common goals, (3) develop and implement programs and (4) maintain and expand progress. The center also applied a set of principles in developing the partnership. By following the stages and applying the principles, the center found that two elements were key to building a partnership for medical student education and community health improvement: long-term commitment and ability and willingness to spend time in the community. As a result, a meaningful, ongoing partnership developed that benefits both the community and MCW.