The Augsburg Health Commons is expanding to bring its proven model of accompaniment-based care to more neighbors through new partnerships and locations.

Late last year, an agreement with M Health Fairview and Redeemer Center for Life formalized a partnership at the Living Room in the Harrison neighborhood of north Minneapolis, where a drop-in site based on the Health Commons model had operated since 2012. Following a disruption of in-person services during the COVID-19 pandemic, the site was re-opened in October 2022 under the leadership of Augsburg Physician Assistant Program Director Vanessa Bester.�� 

This summer, the first Health Commons in St. Paul opened in the Conway Community Center through a partnership with M Health Fairview, the Sanneh Foundation, and the East Side Health & Well-Being Collaborative. Health Commons Executive Director Katie Clark and Augsburg Board of Regents Chair Dennis Meyer will join St. Paul community leaders on August 16 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Health Commons East.��

These new locations join long-standing Health Commons sites at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis and in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.��

“Our nursing and physician assistant faculty, along with our students, are committed to the vision of a drop-in center that focuses on the needs of the communities we serve to address health inequities and other deep-rooted issues faced when seeking care,” said Augsburg President Paul C. Pribbenow. “Augsburg is especially pleased to extend our efforts to the East Side St. Paul neighborhood.”

Augsburg’s Health Commons sites are health-focused drop-in centers led and organized by nursing and physician assistant faculty members, Augsburg students, volunteers, and community members. Developed by Augsburg nursing faculty in the early 1990s, the Health Commons model is founded on principles of hospitality and relationship development that leads to transcultural understanding and health benefits for all participants.��

The people who come to the Health Commons are from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, and many are unhoused or marginally housed. Health concerns might include nutrition, medication, stress management, respiratory conditions, injuries, skin problems, and chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension. Everyone is welcome, and all services are provided free of charge, without proof of need or time constraints.��

Augsburg’s PA program has taken on a growing role as new partnerships and locations have developed. The PA program has led the expansion of services at the Cedar-Riverside Health Commons, connecting with community members providing foot care, a need across many marginalized communities.��

“The PA program is humbled and honored to bring the model of accompaniment-based care into our curriculum and medical practice. Faculty, staff and students are able to build connections, meet people where they are at in their health journey, and learn how health inequities are impacting the people we care for every day. The Harrison neighborhood, Cedar-Riverside, Central Lutheran, and now East St. Paul are the paradigm of what providing health and care should look like in every community,” said Bester.��

To learn more, volunteer, or support the Health Commons, visit augsburg.edu/healthcommons.

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Augsburg Associate Professor and Physician Assistant Program Director Alicia Quella has received an AAPA-PAEA Inaugural Research Fellowship. This new fellowship program is sponsored by the American Academy of Physician Assistants and the Physician Assistant Education Association. Each fellow’s institution will receive a grant of up to $25,000, which will allow recipients to focus on one of a number of research topics developed by the fellowship’s organizers. Quella also 

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Willaert is a third-year student in the physician assistant program at Augsburg. This summer she was selected as one of 50 participants to attend the Paul Ambrose Scholars Symposium presented by the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research. The program brought together leaders representing various areas in health care to help them gain a deeper understanding of the complexities and perspectives of public health and to give them the resources to affect change in their communities.

“Public health has always been an interest of mine,” said Willaert, who worked for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program before she went to graduate school. “That’s where I got interested in public health and nutrition,” she said. She saw the Ambrose program as an opportunity to combine her interests in public health and medicine.

At the symposium, participants learned about the basic principles of public health, healthcare reform, and project planning and management. Willaert said the program is for people who are “coming in fresh with an interest but don’t have the tools necessary to create change,” so different speakers discussed how their areas of expertise might relate to the participants’ final projects. Attendees met together in peer groups to talk about their projects and to get feedback from each other.

Following the symposium, Scholars develop and implement a health promotion or disease prevention project at their institutions or in their communities. Willaert’s project is to develop a nutrition curriculum to be use in pre-conception appointments with women at the Family Tree Clinic in St. Paul.

Willaert says her primary area of interest has been childhood obesity, “But we’re finding that teaching children about health and nutrition in school isn’t enough” she said. “We need to catch the moms to really get to the root of the issue.”

Her curriculum teaches women how to read a label, count calories and carbohydrates, keep a food diary, and about portion sizes. It also includes easy ways for women to increase their physical activity. Willaert obtained a micro-grant which she will use to buy pedometers for women at the clinic. “We need to get them started on the 10,000 steps idea, which is huge,” she said.

Willaert hopes her curriculum will be helpful to the clinicians and that it can be disseminated to the neighborhood healthcare network for underserved populations in the city. She also wants to develop group classes on topics like healthy eating, weight and weight loss, and possibly to start a walking or running club and develop list of places that are free or low-cost where women can go for exercise. “I want to include many aspects of a healthy lifestyle,” Willaert said.

Willaert is pictured here with the Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin, whom she met at the symposium.

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No, these Augsburg physician assistant students were not messing around with the equipment or just taking a break from studying in the halls of Anderson. They were completing a unit on working with older adults by hosting a community health fair for residents of Augustana Apartments in downtown Minneapolis.

On this afternoon, second-year students in the last semester of the academic phase of their program worked in groups sharing information with residents about wellness, specific health problems of older adults, exercise, nutrition, socialization, and community resources.

Ashley Millette and Nick Meath were two students who helped residents learn about assessing their risk for a stroke. They offered a light-hearted video clip to give information about this serious topic. “We think it’s important for older adults to recognize the signs of stroke,” Millette says. She added that stroke is the third leading cause of death among older Americans and 80 percent of strokes are preventable.”

“It’s a great experience, especially for students who haven’t been able to grow up knowing their grandparents,” says Andrea Wold, one of the students. Her group gave samples of a low-calorie fruit dip and shared recipes for soups, salads, and desserts that were especially selected for the residents.

“The intent is to help students get a better understanding of the challenges and issues faced by the older adult community,” says Beth Alexander, an associate professor in the PA program. “A lot of these students don’t spend much time with older adults, and we feel it’s important to train them to care for patients of all ages.”

The Augsburg PA program is unique in that it dedicates an interdisciplinary unit to study healthcare issues of the aging population. In addition to learning about the needs of older adults, students are paired with a senior mentor for 10 months. Students will spend time with the mentor learning about their lives, sometimes taking them to doctor appointments or engaging in recreational activities.

“Many students become friends of their mentors and continue to see them after the semester ends,” Alexander adds.

After completing the academic phase of their program, students will move into clinical rotations. To learn more about the Augsburg Physician Assistant program, go to the admissions .

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Twelve second-year physician assistant students are preparing to travel to Guatemala for two weeks to study health care practices and to learn about indigenous culture. Part of their preparation has included raising money — two garage sales netted over $1,100 — that they’ve used to buy medical equipment and supplies to donate, small gifts and other health items — plus 44 pairs of reading glasses purchased at the dollar store.

Much of their time in Guatemala will be spent in Mayan communities, learning about traditional culture, spirituality, and medicine. The students will visit clinics and schools, and meet with healthcare workers. They’ll also present health education programs and conduct workshops for health promoters on topics such as hypertension and diabetes. Some of their purchased supplies are hygiene and health items for people to take home that reinforce these messages.

The Guatemala trip, from June 23-July 8, is a pilot course for PA students, led by Professor Donna DeGracia and coordinated by the Center for Global Education. While in Guatemala City, the group will stay at Augsburg’s guest house, Casa San José, for orientation and background on local history and culture. This will help the students understand how cultural differences, poverty, and a long civil war have deeply affected the Guatemalan people.

In the capital city, the students will visit poverty-stricken areas and meet with community workers to see first hand the deep disparities in culture. DeGracia says it’s a real eye-opener to actually see how little so many people have and how they find ways to live on and off of other people’s resources.

Traveling into the highlands, the center of Guatemala’s indigenous population, the students will visit Mayan communities in Chichicastenango and San Lucas Tolimán. From the Mayans, they’ll learn about traditional medicine, the use of medicinal plants and other healing practices. The students’ itinerary, planned by the CGE staff in Guatemala, also includes participation in a Mayan ceremony.

The PA students targeted hypertension and diabetes as two areas where they can provide both information and supplies to help local health promoters improve the community’s well-being. The students will donate basic medical equipment and supplies they’ve purchased, such as blood pressure cuffs, stethoscopes, and over-the-counter basics as vitamins and pain relievers, to the local communities.

The PA students hope to draw on this experience as they think about their own medical practice. This includes understanding better how people, especially in traditional cultures, approach medicine differently, and developing cultural sensitivity as they treat patients. They also hope to gain insight into making the best use of scarce resources, helpful for PAs who may practice in rural areas.

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