Preparing health science students for interdisciplinary professional practice

In 2002, a number of lecturers from different clinical schools within the Faculty of Health Sciences at La Trobe University embarked on the development of a new interdisciplinary professional practice subject to be undertaken by all final-year undergraduate health science students. The subject was designed to better prepare students for their first professional appointment by introducing them to the concepts of interdisciplinary teamwork, the health care context, and the challenges and constraints that organizational contexts present. This report details the background of the project, the consultation and development that took place in the design of the subject, and implementation of the subject. The uniqueness of the project is explained by the number of disciplines involved, the online delivery, and the focus on a set of generic graduate attributes for health science students. It is hoped that students who have undertaken this subject will have a better understanding of the roles of other health professionals and the context in which they will be working by grappling with many real-life professional issues that they will face when they graduate and enter the workforce.     

University-community partnerships for health: a model interdisciplinary service-learning project.

This project is an example of a successful service-learning experiment at a major university. The program was successful in providing service-learning experiences for an interdisciplinary group of health-professions students, delivering essential health services to a community at risk, providing health-risk and demographic data, and offering opportunities for scholarly productivity for faculty. This was accomplished with a modest investment of internal start-up funding. Goals of the project were achieved, and the program and course were viewed as successful by students, faculty, and community partners.     

Participatory research and service-learning among farmers, health professional students, and experts: an agromedicine approach to farm safety and health

Agromedicine developments in Alabama rest heavily on the interest and support of the farm community. Participatory approaches have been advocated in order to impact the safety and health of farms. The University of Alabama Agromedicine Research Team, working closely with and guided by farmers, places emphasis on identifying areas of farmer concern related to agricultural health and safety and on developing jointly with the farmers plans to address their concerns. Agricultural extension agents were key to developing the trust relationships among farmers, health professionals, and extension personnel required for these successful agricultural safety and health developments. In this article the authors describe how the research team engaged farmers in participatory research to develop service learning activities for graduate students studying Agricultural Safety and Health at The University of Alabama. Accepting farmers' active role in research processes creates an environment that is favorable to change, while providing farmers reassurance that their health and safety is of utmost importance to the researchers.     

Graduate health professions education: an interdisciplinary university - community partnership model 1996 - 2001

INTRODUCTION: In 1996, East Tennessee State University (ETSU) reinforced its historical commitment to multidisciplinary community engagement by developing a graduate level community partnerships program in the Division of Health Sciences. While the university's earlier health partnership efforts relied primarily on curricular innovation, the approach to graduate health professions education was to seed a series of curricular enhancements and interdisciplinary, community-based learning experiences and service into traditional curricula. This paper presents the experience of one school in crafting a regional network that became the basis of a division-wide graduate level teaching and learning initiative. INNOVATIONS AND EVALUATION: Carefully selected planning and implementation techniques enabled multidisciplinary practitioners and community members from across a 20-county region to participate with university faculty in training ETSU learners in community-based medical care. By year four of the project, curricular "enhancements" were institutionalized in over five departments across the Division and engaged 1160 medical residents and graduate learners in a give - get model of health education. Programme evaluation methodology was collaboratively defined and documentation of programme effort and outcomes regularly reported and strategically reviewed. CONCLUSIONS: Programme evaluation demonstrates mutual benefit to community and university. Faculty involvement in programme activity increased fourfold and community involvement in training of health professions graduate learners increased threefold by year four. Educational innovations were adopted into traditional curricula, thousands of hours of clinical services were provided to underserved communities and the university-community team forged by network links continues to promote multidisciplinary interests through joint public policy endeavors.     

Developing interdisciplinary courses for allied health students: a retrospective view

Innovative interdisciplinary education in allied health has been developed in order to give students insight into role competencies of other professionals, improve the quality of health care while reducing costs, and facilitate the interdependent functioning of allied health care providers in meeting patient or client needs. The process of interdisciplinary course development requires the same communication and needs identification by faculty as is necessary for the provision of team care by practitioners. A retrospective account of interdisciplinary course development in a major health sciences center, together with materials developed for class presentation, may serve to encourage this type of activity elsewhere.     

Using Polvika's model to create a service-learning partnership

Collaboration can maximize limited resources of universities, school systems, and public health departments by offering learning from experience. Polvika's theoretical model and principles from Community-Campus Partnerships for Health guided development of a service-learning partnership among a university, a county health department, and an alternative school in a large public school district. Of three commonly identified patterns of service-learning, this partnership demonstrated the pattern that equally emphasizes service to a community or agency, and mutual learning by all participants. All organizations in the partnership share a common goal to optimize the health of children in schools, and to provide quality learning for professional students. The partnership is in its fourth year. Formal interagency agreements now exist among all partners. Individuals continue to demonstrate flexibility and mutual awareness of strengths and limitations of respective organizations. Public school students receive more services, many high-risk children achieve better learning outcomes, school nurses offer expanded services in many schools with the help of nursing students, and undergraduate and graduate nursing students gain meaningful learning experiences. Some nursing students state that school nursing has become a career goal. The partnership continues to evolve to meet changing needs of the partners. Members remain satisfied with the collaboration.     

Oral health for the elderly: an interdisciplinary approach

The aging of the Brazilian population and the resulting change in its age structure require from public policies and health professionals distinct attitudes with regard to health care delivery, focused on interdisciplinary work. This text aims at emphasizing the importance of using the problematization method in the context of an interdisciplinary approach, in which the actions shared by the different fields of knowledge converge to an interactive process towards an integrated view of the individual.     

Minnesota's rural health school: interdisciplinary community education

The Minnesota Rural Health School was established in 1996 and is administered by the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Duluth. The program provides rural interdisciplinary clinical experiences for health professions students in seven community sites. The core disciplines include medicine, physician assistant, pharmacy, nursing, dentistry, and social work. There have been more than 230 participants. Students benefit by learning to work in collaborative teams and by participating in rural health care delivery. The communities benefit from service-learning projects, from the introduction of telecommunication technologies, and from the increased potential for recruiting future rural practitioners.     

A partnership approach to health promotion: a case study from Northern Ireland

In recent years there has been a renewal of interest in community development and partnership approaches in the delivery of health and social services in Northern Ireland. The general thrust of these approaches is that local communities can be organized to address health and social needs and to work with government agencies, voluntary bodies and local authorities in delivering services and local solutions to problems. Since the Ottawa Charter was launched in 1986, government in Northern Ireland has stressed that community development should no longer simply be added on to key aspects of Health and Social Services, but should instead be at the core of their work. There is increasing consensus that traditional approaches to improving health and well-being, which have focused on the individual, are paternalistic and have failed to tackle inequalities effectively. Partnerships within a community development setting have been heralded as a means to facilitate participation and empowerment. This paper outlines the policy background to community development approaches in health promotion and delivery in Northern Ireland. Drawing on evidence from a case study of a community health project it highlights the benefits and difficulties with this approach. The findings suggest that partnerships can positively influence a community's health status, but in order to be effective they require effective planning and long-term commitment from both the state and the local community.     

A community-campus partnership for health: the Seat Pleasant-University of Maryland health partnership

A partnership formed between the University of Maryland and the city of Seat Pleasant, Maryland, designed to enhance the health of the city's residents and the education of the university's students--graduate and undergraduate--in the Department of Public and Community Health is described. The health partnership is based on service-learning theory, and a presentation of research findings related to service learning is offered. The history of the health partnership, its developmental stages, its operational procedures, and its evaluation are discussed. In addition, projects resulting from health partnership activities and projects and goals projected for the future are presented. Throughout the article, lessons learned are discussed, and the discussion and conclusions detail the benefits to inform other programs interested in forming a community-campus partnership for health.     

A partnership in health education between a neighborhood school and a community hospital

This paper reports the results of a cooperative effort between a community teaching hospital and a neighborhood Inter-mediate School to promote health education in an urban setting. The liaison stemmed from the need to educate a large, multi-ethnic student population and, through it, the community. To this end, the administrative, teaching, and medical staffs of the school and hospital prepared a series of health education events designed to provide needed information. The subjects incuded: Mental Health, Urgent Care, Personal Hygiene, Nutrition, Eating Disorders, Substance Abuse, Teenage Sexuality, Depression, Suicide, and Family Relationships.This paper describes the results of a student questionnaire designed to measure the effectiveness of one of the programs and provide a venue for student suggestions. These suggestions were incorporated into subsequent programs.This cost-free partnership was one of six programs chosen as being outstanding in the field of education in New York City. It was the recipient of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators Education Program Award for 1987, New York City.Phyllis D. Weiner, M.D. is Director of Pediatric Ambulatory Care and Emergency Medicine, Flushing Hospital Medical Center, 4500 Parsons Boulevard, Flushing, New York 11355. Joseph D. Cantara, P.D. is Assistant Principal, Rachel L. Carson, Intermediate School, 46–21 Colden Street, Flushing, New York, 11355. Nicetas H. Kuo, M.D., M.P.H. is Director of Community Medicine and Ambulatory Care Services, Flushing Hospital Medical Center, 4500 Parsons Boulevard, Flushing, New York 11355. James Lione, M.D. is Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics. Flushing Hospital Medical Center, 4500 Parsons Boulevard, Flushing, New York, 11355. Address requests for reprints to Dr. Weiner.     

A rural service-learning model for health administration education

Service learning for students in the health professions can best be described as an educational methodology based on the collaboration between an academic discipline and a community agency to link student learning with community-based service. This paper describes a service-learning model in rural and medically underserved communities used in a master in health administration program in a rural Southern state. It presents the process, components, outcomes, and challenges. Over the past five years, 56 students completed 116 experiences involving internships, field projects, or special projects in rural and medically underserved communities. A total of 27 percent of our graduates who completed rural and medically underserved experiences accepted job positions in rural health care entities. Strategies utilized by this rural service-learning model include interdisciplinary team training, partnerships among rural and medically underserved community health care entities and academic institutions, faculty-preceptor retreats, and involvement in local community initiatives. These experiences prepare future health administrators to contribute in a meaningful way toward building an effective rural health care delivery system.     

A community approach to health

Improving the health and well-being of a community may seem like a daunting task-particularly when you consider the vast number of factors that can influence the quality of life of a neighborhood or a region. It's not impossible, however, as six widely different communities across the U.S. are discovering. The Accelerating Community Transformation (ACT) project--now underway by The Healthcare Forum through a five-year, $5 million grant from pharmaceutical joint venture Astra Merck Inc.--is an innovative attempt to create real-life learning laboratories in communities as diverse as an inner-city neighborhood on the west side of Chicago; the small southern town of Aiken, S.C.: the semi-desert city of San Bernardino, Calif.; a corner of America's heartland where Missouri, Kansas. Nebraska and Iowa meet; the new town of Celebration, Fla.; and St. Louis, Mo. The goals: to evaluate and accelerate community-wide efforts that result in healthier, more desirable places for people to live, work and play; to build community capacity; and to achieve measurable improved health and quality of life outcomes.     

Community-based participatory research: policy recommendations for promoting a partnership approach in health research

Community-based participatory research in public health focuses on social, structural, and physical environmental inequities through active involvement of community members, organizational representatives, and researchers in all aspects of the research process. Partners contribute their expertise to enhance understanding of a given phenomenon and integrate the knowledge gained with action to benefit the community involved. This article presents key principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), discusses the rationale for its use, and provides a number of policy recommendations at the organizational, community and national levels aimed at advancing the application of CBPR. While the issues addressed here draw primarily upon experiences in the United States, the emphasis throughout this article on the establishment of policies to enhance equity that would serve both to increase the engagement of communities as partners in health research, and to reduce health disparities, has relevant applications in a global context.     

A new approach to interdisciplinary health studies: the Koster Health Project

The Koster Health Project, initiated in 1987, is an interdisciplinary development project with a focus on human ecology. The objectives are to use relatively simple methods of medical and odontological annual examinations to carry out a 10-year longitudinal study of how life situations and life style factors may direct the development of individual's health in a sparse, geographically rather isolated and socially static, rural population in which it is possible to compare older and younger generations. An investigative model is established on the Koster islands and in this model assessments of given health criteria and other preventive medical, odontological and psychosocial measures may be followed up. Furthermore, the effects of environmental changes may be ascertained. Based on the experiences from the Koster Health Project, national and international seminars are arranged on the islands with emphasis on the impact of environment and life style on human health. The nutritional questions are the centre of specific interest.     

A new approach to community health

This article deals with the local health care among the Shipibo-Conibo in eastern Peru. A project called AMETRA--application of traditional medicine--is functioning in the area. The aim of AMETRA is to give courses and stimulate co-operation between traditional medical practice and Western medicine. The solutions to the health problems are seen in direct relation to the socio-economic structure and to the environmental prerequisites. The aim and purposes of AMETRA are described and analysed. It is proposed that the two medical systems should co-operate in such a manner that their complementary nature is emphasized and fully utilized.