The office of vice president in the Nebraska Academy of Family Physicians (NAFP) is challenging and rewarding for Jeffrey Harrison, M.D., associate professor of family medicine at UNMC.
Since being elected to the position in March, Dr. Harrison has been busy organizing and preparing for the annual continuing medical education meeting next spring, the annual preventative medicine conference in November and working with academy officers to develop a leadership conference next summer.
He also is in charge of overseeing the activities of the scientific assembly and research committee. “It’s important for us, as faculty here, to get involved with organizations that take us outside of the university setting and put us in touch with other practicing physicians across the state,” Dr. Harrison said. “It also helps build better working relationships between family medicine physicians.”
The NAFP has 600 members statewide. Before being elected vice president, Dr. Harrison was a member of the board of directors for three years. After serving as vice president for one year, Dr. Harrison will be nominated president-elect for one year, then serve as the NAFP president for a year.
The goals of the NAFP – to promote health care and family medicine – are parallel to what Dr. Harrison does as the residency director at UNMC. “Being a member of the NAFP has been beneficial to my role as residency director,” he said.
Since the membership spans the state, Dr. Harrison said he has developed a better understanding of the variety of health care demands family physicians face every day.
In turn this has helped him guide UNMC residents in determining what they need to study in order to be effective family physicians wherever they practice in Nebraska.
“The needs of a physician in Lincoln will differ from the needs of a doctor in Valentine, Neb.,” Dr. Harrison said. “Those differing needs can entail scope of practice, referral patterns, hospital viability and call coverage, to name several.”
Through the NAFP, Dr. Harrison also is able to expose youths interested in health careers to UNMC, including what programs are available and the type of research being conducted.
One of Dr. Harrison’s goals is to help advise rural youths interested in a medical career on how to apply to medical school in a way that is competitive with urban youths.
“The number of rural youths getting into medical school has declined,” he said. “Not because they are lacking academically, but because urban youths are getting better advice on what to do in order to build competitive admission applications.”
Other faculty from the UNMC Department of Family Medicine who are members of the NAFP include: Carol Lacroix, M.D., clinical assistant professor, who was appointed secretary-treasurer in March; and Ivan Abdouch, M.D., associate professor, and William Minier, M.D., clinical assistant professor, both of whom serve on the board of directors.