Is there a disconnect with the community you serve when you finish nursing or medical school? For the 300 Georgia health care students who formed the group H-Stat, there is one, and it needs serious repair.

Started about a year and a half ago, H-Stat is a statewide coalition of medical, nursing and public health students who want to "affect positive change in our community, and to instill a civic ethic," said Arun Mohan, a third-year medical student at Emory University who helped start the group.

Students from Atlanta, Macon, Augusta and Athens are part of the coalition.

The civic ethic and involvement in legislative action is needed to galvanize health care students who care about patients who can't afford health care, he said.

According to Mohan, there often is a disconnect between the realities of the clinic or hospital and that of the patient's home environment.

For example, prescriptions are written for drugs costing $100 for patients who don't have enough money to pay the electric bill; asthmatics go home to roach-infested apartments that aggravate their conditions; and the sick don't seek care unless it's in an emergency room because of lack of insurance.

"To be caring as nurses and doctors . . . we need to understand the social and political context in which our patients live," he said.

Wendy Jackson, a senior BSN nursing student at the Medical College of Georgia agrees. "As a nursing student, I am taught to be my patient's advocate at all costs. What better way to advocate for a patient than to ensure them preventive as well as progressive care, regardless of socioeconomic status?"

Jackson, a member of the Georgia Association of Nursing Students, is also an H-Stat board member.

The group recently received a $35,000 grant from the Healthcare Georgia Foundation and hired its first executive director.

The group's focus this year is on childhood obesity and continues to focus on the problem of Georgia's uninsured. The group is adopting schools to work on that student group's health index.

"Understanding how the lack of insurance can affect health care is very important," said Mohan. "It's a gigantic problem. Health care professionals in particular can be strong leaders in their community, and educate students about [the uninsured], and about proposals for reform."

Members of H-Stat and other health care students will get together in Augusta Nov. 7-9 for a Student Leadership Symposium to discuss childhood obesity and the uninsured.

For information, call Mohan at 404-734-7065, or H-Stat's executive director Dana Lee at 678-637-6923.