Provider Recruitment

Brigades Officers Responsibilities
MEDLIFE 2009

Introduction:
Organizing a brigade includes organizing student participants, setting dates, obtaining medical donations and recruiting physicians. As a Brigades Officer, you are responsible for working closely with your chapter’s leadership, membership and the Student Advisory Board to ensure your chapters success in each of these areas.

Student Participants and Dates:
Solidifying your student participants early on in the academic year will help both your chapter’s fundraising and its ability to recruit doctors since committed participants will have a greater investment in the success of the brigade. We suggest that you determine who will go on a brigade and the group’s preferred dates previous to the holiday break so that members will be motivated to recruit professionals and fundraise over the holidays. The final deadline for dates and participants, however, is three and a half months prior to your trip so that plane tickets can be purchased at the best prices. In the case that two chapters prefer the same dates for their trips, the first group to request the dates will get priority. In order to run your own brigade, we ask that you have a minimum of 15 participants. If you have less than that, we will combine your group with another in a similar situation.

Professional Recruitment and Medical Donations:
The recruitment of medical professionals is the primary step in organizing a medical brigade, for their medical expertise is necessary for accomplishing the brigade’s principle goal: to provide healthcare to those in need. However, finding primary care practitioners that are not only willing but also able to join a medical brigade requires a fair amount of planning.
Developing a network of medical professional contacts will mostly rely on the initiative of individual MEDLIFE members. These efforts should be directed toward both the chapter’s immediate medical community and personal contacts of individual MEDLIFE members. Most MEDLIFE members will have some sort of contact with the professional world of medicine, whether it be through a family member, doctor, mentor or friend. It will be the responsibility of each MEDLIFE member to use the recruiting tools provided to them to generate interest in the MEDLIFE project. Your chapter should also make an effort to access the resources of your immediate community especially if there is a hospital or medical school associated with your college or university.
You should search for interest a sincere but non-invasive manner; you are simply trying to give those who may be interested the opportunity to join in a really unique project. At the same time, exploring your members’ and community contacts can provide great exposure for MEDLIFE’s name and our goals. Thus, if one of your group’s medical contacts is unable to directly participate in your medical brigade, you can also ask them if they would be willing to spread the word to their colleagues, donate medical supplies, or join in the next year’s brigades.
As the brigades director, you are primarily responsible for heading this process and ensuring that your membership is properly prepared and educated to contribute.

Procedural Notes for Recruitment:
• Work with other officers and members to determine your ideal trip dates and submit them to the Student Advisory Board
• Make it clear to all members that a medical brigade cannot occur without accompanying medical professionals
• Make it clear that any medical professional that can work in a primary care setting can join a medical brigade, including: Physicians (Pediatric, General Internal Medicine, Primary Care), Physician Assistants (PAs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs).
• You should bring at least one physician on your brigade
• In the worst case scenario, a doctor from the destination country can be hired, but this should be a last resort

Community Recruitment points:
• If your school has an associated Medical school, medical students are a great resource since they have great access to the medical community through their professors and mentors
• Invite interested medical students to help plan or even join your medical brigade
• local hospitals are also a valuable resource
• Develop contacts through the faculty, Human Resources department or med students and try to have someone use professional e-mail lists or bulletins to put your MEDLIFE chapter in touch with interested physicians

Meeting with potential medical professionals
• Make sure you openly discuss if they can commit to joining a medical brigade. If not, give them time to decide while you continue recruiting.
• If they are already ready to commit, ask if they can deposit their participation fees and give them a timeline for making travel reservations

Dentists
• While your primary concern should be primary care provider recruitment, you should also find a dentist if possible

Documents:
Below you will find a set of documents that should give you a basis for your recruitment efforts. The website www.medlifeweb.org is also an invaluable tool.

1. Recruitment Notes for Students
2. Brigade Expectations
3. Recruitment Letter
4. Medication List
5. Where We Work
6. Promotional Pamphlet

Recruitment Letter:

Dear Primary Care Practitioner,

I am writing to you on behalf of MEDLIFE, a non-profit organization that travels to Ecuador from New England to provide medical and dental care to the indigenous people of Ecuador during one or two week medical brigades.

Students at the University of Maine, University of New England, University of Vermont
and Dartmouth College are fundraising and organizing to work during the brigades. All
we need now is your help. We are looking for primary care practitioners to work with
MEDLIFE and these student groups to provide medical care for the poor of Ecuador. If
you are interested and able to go on a medical brigade please email me at:
INSERT EMAIL ADRESS. Currently MEDLIFE is in desperate need of physicians, if the cost of the brigade is prohibitive please email us and we will work out a discounted price. For us the most important thing is to offer medical care to the poor and your participation makes that possible.

Our brigade is to help families achieve greater freedom from the constraints of poverty,
empowering them to live healthier lives. By teaching American medical students about
inequities in international health care, we hope to generate awareness as well as
encourage responsible global citizenship.

If you are a primary care practitioner we need your help!
See Ecuador, help the poor, and help American students learn about poverty.
MEDLIFE BRIGADES to Ecuador 2008

Participation Costs
One Week: $650
Two Weeks: $950
Plus Airfare

Thank you for your time and consideration,

INSERT NAME
www.medlifeweb.org