Connors, Seifer, Sebastian, Cora-Bramble, and Hart
laboration with the Cooperative Education
Association (CEA) and the Corporation for
National Service, hosted a two-hour national telebriefing to identify and discuss the barriers and
facilitators of interdisciplinary service-learning in
health professions education.2 Program directors
from three HPSISN-funded schools described their
experiences in developing interdisciplinary service-learning courses in the first funded year.
Program directors were asked to briefly describe
their programs and respond to the following questions: (1) what challenges did you face in developing your interdisciplinary service-learning program
and how did you overcome them; (2) what
resources (i.e. written materials, the support of certain key individuals) did you find helpful to you in
developing your interdisciplinary service-learning
program; and (3) what "lessons learned" would
you share with faculty interested in developing
interdisciplinary service-learning programs? We
reviewed the telebriefing transcript and information obtained from the three schools' initial grant
proposal and progress reports and summarize our
findings in the sections below.
George Washington University
Program Overview
The George Washington University School of
Medicine and Health Sciences in partnership with
George Mason University College of Nursing and
Health Sciences have developed an interdisciplinary service-learning project entitled,
Interdisciplinary Student Community Patient
Education Service or ISCOPES. Teams composed
of nursing, medical, physician assistant, and health
services management students are exposed to a
curriculum which emphasizes Community
Oriented Primary Care (COPC) and Continuous
Quality Improvement (CQI) through seminars, service-learning activities, and research in interdisciplinary team settings. Under the supervision of a
multidisciplinary faculty, students conduct health
promotion and disease prevention activities in the
District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland. This
methodology focuses on involving all program
partners to continually improve the process and
systems in which they work. The main components of CQI involves the following cycle of steps:
Plan, Do, Study, Act. The integration of servicelearning into the curriculum is led by the ISCOPES
COPC Curriculum Committee which includes the
lead curricular person from each discipline's
degree program.
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Program Goals
The three main goals of the project are to:
* develop interdisciplinary service-learning projects
* develop an interdisciplinary COPC and CQI curriculum
* develop a cadre of academic and community
based faculty to support service-learning projects
and to teach the curriculum
Community Service Learning Activity
Nurse practitioners, physician assistant, and
medical students meet with an identified group of
faculty and community faculty members to design
a project together for a given site. Using a community-oriented approach, the community needs
are first identified by the agency staff, students, and
faculty. Once the community health needs have
been identified, the student's service projects are
mutually planned and executed by community and
institutional partners. With 6 community sites
involved to date in the service-learning program
(Washington Free Clinic, Elderly Network, La
Clinica de Pueblo, Headstart Programs, Iona
House, and the United Planning Organization), the
students address a range of different health promotion, disease prevention, and health education
activities for preschoolers, the elderly, the homeless population, prisoners, abused women, adolescents in inner city schools and migrant groups.
Prior to their service placements, students participate in an orientation to their service experience.
Orientation components include student understanding and sensitivity to the community and its
needs, idea development for health promotion
activities, and team building concepts for the interdisciplinary service activity. Throughout the
course of the service-learning project, students participate in reflection exercises in small group discussions facilitated by faculty.
Community Involvement
Community partners have a stake in the development of all areas of the interdisciplinary servicelearning projects. For example, community partners who have substantial experience in community service or with health professions students and
have a commitment to the overall program are eligible to be selected as "Community Faculty." Their
role ensures their active involvement and representation in the communities they serve and in the program. In addition, serving on the program's advisory committee are two community faculty and
