1604-12138

The National Medical Fellowship Primary Care Leadership Program (PCLP) is an innovative national service-learning program that provides health professions students with an opportunity to learn first-hand about the challenges and rewards of primary care practice at community health centers (CHC). PCLP is an interdisciplinary program that co-locates students from different health professions, which enables them to learn together about the critical importance of interprofessional practice and team-based care. PCLP’s mission is to develop a pipeline of future primary care professionals from diverse backgrounds who are committed to serving underrepresented communities and to build capacity at partner CHCs. Since 2012, PCLP has awarded 256 scholarships, placing underrepresented medical and graduate level nursing and physician assistant students at partner FQHCs in 14 cities. NMF proposes to strengthen the oral health professional pipeline by expanding PCLP to 1) target oral health professional students to participate in this unique interprofessional service-learning experience and 2) to formally incorporate oral health into the national leadership curriculum to for all PCLP Scholars. NMF will build on existing relationships with oral health advocates and convene an oral health integration advisory group to guide development of the oral health track. President’s Fund support in the amount of $25,000 will increase awareness about the importance of integrating oral health in primary care among the 2017 cohort of GE-NMF Primary Care Leadership Program (PCLP) Scholars.