GRACE COTTAGE COLLEGE ?

Few people, even among Grace Cottage's own staff, are aware of the extent and scope of the educational services provided at Grace Cottage. All of the physicians' practices have sponsored interns from various medical schools in the Northeast, including The University of Vermont, Albany Medical School, Yale, Harvard, Columbia and Cornell. The office of Dr. Bob Backus has been hosting three or four interns a year for over twenty years.

"The interns come for one month, and they have the opportunity here to see patients and to be directly involved in patient care," said Dr. Backus. Many of the interns have observed that the level of their participation is much greater at Grace Cottage than it would be elsewhere, both because of the small size and the fact that the physicians' practices, hospital, nursing home and various other services here are so closely interconnected.

However, not all of the education that goes on at Grace Cottage involves medical students. Local high school students contemplating a career in healthcare are encouraged to spend a semester shadowing personnel in various departments. Continuing education for staff is frequently offered, on a wide variety of subjects, including Back Safety, Aggressive Behaviors in Dementia, The Art of Nursing (based on the Nursing Code of Ethics), Diabetes, and Parkinson's Disease. Occasionally, nurses from other facilities are invited to participate in these classes at Grace Cottage.

For those interested in First Aid, CPR, and Emergency Medical Services Training, Mark Onyon teaches a number of courses at Grace Cottage's Bock EMS Training Center. Thanks to an anonymous donor and the Southern Vermont Area Health Education Center, scholarships are available for students wishing to become certified in EMS.

For more information on further educational opportunities in healthcare at "Grace Cottage College", call 802-365-9109.

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