The Dalhousie Health Mentors Program: Introducing students to collaborative patient/client-centered practice

Abstract

The Dalhousie Health Mentors Program builds on a long history of interprofessional health education initiatives by introducing students in health and social care professions to chronic conditions and disabilities, patient/client-centredness, interprofessional learning, and team functioning. This large interprofessional education program (16 participating programs, 650 students) connects interprofessional student teams with Health Mentors, who are adult volunteers with chronic conditions, for a learning experience that extends over one academic year. Students explore their mentor's life story and chronic condition journey, the impact the condition has had on her/his life, and her/his experience with health care in general and interprofessional collaboration in particular. All aspects of the program planning, management, implementation, and evaluation have been interprofessional in nature. Lessons have been learned regarding

Keywords::

• Collaboration
• community volunteers
• Health Mentors Program
• interprofessional education
• patient-centered practice

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the collaborative spirit and hard work of the Dalhousie Health Mentors Committee and its working groups in developing the program and keeping it vibrant; the ongoing support of the Deans of Dentistry, Health Professions and Medicine; and the generosity and good will of the Health Mentors in sharing their experiences with students.

Declaration of interestThe authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

^* Audiology, clinical psychology, clinical vision science, dental hygiene, dentistry, health informatics, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, respiratory therapy, social work, and speech language pathology.