Northwest AHEC Recipient of 2018 Community Partnership Award

June 5, 2018

The Northwest Area Health Education Center (AHEC) of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and part of the North Carolina AHEC System was awarded the 2018 Community Partnership Award by Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) in Hickory as part of their graduation ceremonies. The award was made to honor Northwest AHEC in recognition of their dedication, commitment and support for CVCC’s School of Health and Public Services.

Northwest AHEC and CVCC began their partnership more than 40 years ago around medical library services. Since then, Northwest AHEC continues to assist students in the School of Health and Public Services with access to medical library services at its satellite medical library at Catawba Valley Medical Center.

Additionally, Northwest AHEC, in partnership with the N.C. AHEC System, undertook an effort to streamline CVCC’s students’ orientation process for area hospitals by providing a portal for OSHA completion requirements as well as emergency processes for the same hospitals. This process has benefitted CVCC students by decreasing orientation times at most of their affiliated hospitals so that students can enter their clinical rotations sooner.

Northwest AHEC also offers continuing education workshops and conferences on various allied health, public health and nursing topics in which CVCC students are able to take advantage of to enhance learning opportunities. 

Northwest AHEC collaborates with a variety of educational partners in its 17-county region to offer its well-known Camp Med summer program for high school students. CVCC serves as the host and educational partner for Camp Med Catawba County. These students attend CVCC and tour Valley Sim Hospital, Frye Regional Medical Center and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center as part of the exploration and knowledge-gathering about various health care career options.

“We are so pleased to receive this award in recognition of our longstanding partnership with CVCC, and we look forward to continuing this partnership in the future,” said Michael Lischke, M.P.H., associate professor of family & community medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and Richard Janeway Distinguished Director of Northwest AHEC. 

Media Relations

Eryn Johnson: eryjohns@wakehealth.edu, 336-713-8228