History
WHEC began in 1976. What started out on a community level as a collective formed by and for women to learn about their bodies quickly morphed into a training program to assist in the needs of health care practitioners who would be working with women. Our first teaching contract was with the Duke Physician Assistant program teaching students how to conduct routine, annual pelvic examinations. Since then, we have added a training for the breast examination and expanded our contracts to include medical students, graduate nursing students and health profession groups throughout North Carolina. Through in-depth discussions and hands-on practice sessions, instructors promote respect, physical and psychological comfort, and a partnership between provider and patient.
Philosophy
Our philosophy is that good health care provides a learning experience for both providers and patients. We believe that health care providers should empower patients as much as possible, thereby enabling them to take a more active role in their own health care. Thirty six years after the groups original formation, we continue to work from the position that health care should be about fostering a partnership between provider and patient. We aim to help facilitate this partnership by educating providers not only in technique, but in open and respectful communication.
