Community Medicine

Our nationally recognized community medicine program is one of the highlights that attracts a diverse group of applicants to Natividad Family Medicine Residency and makes our program so special. Whether through direct patient care or community en- gagement, our work is centered around bridging the gaps between our most marginalized populations and access to quality care and health information.

The program is currently led by Magdalena Ruiz Ruelas who joined Natividad in 2023. Magdalena completed a master’s in public health at UC Berkeley and a master’s in nursing (family nurse practitioner) at UC San Francisco. She has worked both locally and internationally to advocate and raise awareness around the health issues impacting Latinx immigrant communities. Magdalena’s previous work and her lived experience as the daughter and granddaughter of agricultural workers brings a first-person account to our community medicine curriculum and helps immerse our residents in the community on a personal and deeper level.

Residents engage with the community not only during their community medicine rotations but throughout all years of training— participating in addiction medicine, community outreach and advocacy, coaching, mentoring, and more. Their efforts culminate in a senior capstone project focused on a community medicine topic of their choice.

Through these experiences, residents gain valuable skills to better understand and communicate with patients, foster physician-patient collaboration, and observe firsthand the impact of their work beyond the walls of their institution.

Beginning with a community tour during orientation, all first- year residents participate in a series of community immersion activities to learn about local organizations and the resources available to their patients. These include: visiting communities where their patients live, volunteering at the local food bank, visiting residential substance use and mental health treatment centers, the county health department, WIC, and juvenile hall, among others.

Examples of community-based experiences all residents participate in during the 3-year curriculum:

• Resident-led health related workshops with community partners, local schools, migrant farmworker camps, and residential substance use treatment centers.
• Resident led trainings for local promotores (community health workers) on chosen health topics.
• Harm reduction efforts through street outreach and syringe exchange, rapid HIV & Hep C test counseling, low barrier addiction treatment, wound care.
• Engage in community advocacy with community partners- including housing, environmental health, and food access.
• LGBTQ and gender-affirming care in collaboration with local agencies and at our own clinic.
• Engaging with the Monterey County Medical Society and the California Academy of Family Physicians to advocate for im- proved health policies.
  
• MAT (medication-assisted treatment for opiate use disorder): Provide buprenorphine and long-acting naloxone in our clinic and assess hospital and ER patients with substance use disorders via the Family Medicine SUD consult service.
• Elective rotation in Correctional Medicine at the state prison in Soledad.
• Resident-led Quality Improvement projects. Examples include- Diabetes Needs Assessment, Patient Advisory Com- mittee, Access to Mental Health Resources, Indigenous language interpreter services.
• Senior capstone community medicine project. Examples include: Nutrition for Chronic Disease Prevention, Health Edu- cation Using Popular Education, Consent and Healthy Relationships, Restorative Justice, Community Cooking Work- shops, and Health Careers Pipeline Project.