Exploring your Practice Community

One of the most important things you can do as a Family Physician is to spend time discovering your new practice community. For purposes of starting a practice this typically involves learning about the hospital, potential consultants, nursing services, etc. Because you’ll have the next three years to learn about these, we want you to use this exercise to focus instead on the community and culture(s) that surround our practice.

Over the next several days your ‘scavenger hunt’ mission is to learn about life in West Philadelphia by exploring one of the neighborhoods immediately surrounding Penn Family Care. You'll need to plan carefully to fully explore the community in the time given. You’ll also need some items to record your observations:

    Comfortable clothes and walking shoes

    A map of the region (provided)

    A camera

    A notebook for recording observations

    A pen or pencil

Using your map, explore your neighborhood. Walk around to observe and talk to people you meet along the way. Using the camera take snapshots of the key people, buildings and services that you find. Create your own map to mark the location of these items.

While exploring keep in mind the following questions:

•    Why is this neighborhood here? What are its origins? What are its boundaries? Are the boundaries geographic, cultural or artificial? What sustains it now? What businesses, industry, or services are in the neighborhood? How many people do you estimate live here?

•    Transportation: How do people get around in the neighborhood? Are there sidewalks or bike paths? Describe the public transportation in the neighborhood including bus, trolley, taxi and quasi-public services (church vans, apartment vans, etc.) if any.

•    Support services: Are there grocery stores, pharmacies or liquor stores? Go into a grocery store or pharmacy and look around. Complete the questions from the attached ‘ethnography guide’ when observing your store or market. How many churches are there? What denominations? What other businesses are present?

•    Education: Where are the schools? Are they public or private? Are there venues for adult education?

•    Municipal services: Does the neighborhood have its own police or fire stations? What is the level of crime in the area? How does the neighborhood handle its water supply, waste disposal, electricity?

•    Parks and recreation: How many parks are there? Describe them. What activities are available in them? Are there any community activities going on in the parks? Are there safe places for children to play? Where do families congregate? What do teens do for recreation?

•    Health and social services: Describe the neighborhood nursing homes, physicians' offices, day care centers, family planning services, AA meetings, meals on wheels or similar social service programs. Does the neighborhood have a public health department? If some of these services are unavailable then where do people go to for them instead? Visit a (non-UPHS) doctor's office. What services are available there? How long does it take to get an appointment?

•    Housing: Observe the types and ages of the buildings in the neighborhood, the range of housing and note the predominant type (single family dwelling, high rise apartments, attached row housing, trailer park, etc.). Are there homeless people in this community? How are the homeless accommodated in this neighborhood?

•    People: What sort of people do you meet on the street? What are they doing? What is the ethnic or racial makeup of the neighborhood? Are there substantial minority populations? How would you characterize the hospitality of the community?

•    Make a note of whether anyone notices you. How do you react to them? How do they react to you? How does that feel?

You should return prepared to discuss your experience by:

-having recorded your observations in a notebook,

-drawn a map with key landmarks noted,

-taken pictures to remind you of aspects of the community including at least one person, building, and a natural landmark,

 -collecting at least four items from the community that represent some characteristic of the community, such a brochure from a local business, a piece of clothing, a food product, etc.

Some links to help you with neighborhood information:

http://www.upenn.edu/ccp/

http://www.phila.gov/

http://www.phmc.org/chdb/

http://cml.upenn.edu/

http://www.upenn.edu/penniur/index.htm