Interprofessional service-learning in a community setting: findings from a pilot study

Abstract

Interprofessional education is becoming more popular in higher education and service-learning has been a successful method to facilitate experiences that foster teamwork between professions. This report shares the results from an interprofessional service-learning project (ISLP) targeting students across eight disciplines (physician assistant, medicine, pharmacy, dietetic internship, physical therapy, master in health administration, nursing and biomedical science). The project used an existing resource, the South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (SC-AHEC), to coordinate student learning across multiple regions and an established health promotion program curriculum for student outreach content. Participating students (n = 149) were evaluated to determine how the activity affected student appreciation and knowledge of their own and other professions, their interaction with other professional students, and student teamwork skills. Students found the most value in learning with students from other professions as part of the activity with lesser value placed on students increasing their knowledge about their profession’s role in interprofessional work.

• Interprofessional education
• partnership
• prevention
• statistics
• surveys
• teamwork

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the SC AHEC for their support, especially, the regional health professions student coordinators in the implementation of the project in regions in Charleston and across the state of South Carolina.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors are responsible for the writing and contents of this paper.

Notes

¹Professions Student (HPS) coordinators.