What impact does community service learning have on medical students' appreciation of population health?

Community Service Learning (CSL) is a method of teaching where students learn through active participation in thoughtfully organized community service. CSL has emerged as a promising training method to address the changing needs of medical students and to improve their social accountability (1,2). Medical schools are beginning to incorporate community service learning into their curriculums as a way to introduce students to the complicated world of delivering care to vulnerable populations. Mr. A, a refugee from Iraq, immigrated to Canada in June 2015 with his family. Five months later, during a CSL medical intake interview with two medical students and an Arabic interpreter, he revealed to have ongoing suicidal ideation and multiple suicide attempts. Due to significant cultural taboos and stigma around mental illness, Mr. A was initially very hesitant to seek medical help. However, with the help of the CSL program he was able to get much needed medical care.

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A New Interprofessional Community-Service Learning Program, HATS (Health Ambassador Teams for Seniors) to Improve Older Adults Attitudes about Telehealth and Functionality

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph181910082 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (19) ◽

pp. 10082

Author(s):

Donald Jurivich ◽

Carter Schimke ◽

Dakota Snustad ◽

Mitchell Floura ◽

Casey Morton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Health Promotion ◽

Service Learning ◽

Population Health ◽

Older Adult ◽

Community Service ◽

Data Repository ◽

Community Service Learning ◽

Senior Population ◽

Over Time

Senior population health often is underrepresented in curricula for medical and allied health students. Furthermore, entrenched and dense curricular schedules preclude interprofessional teams from clinical experiences related to senior population health. Community service learning potentially offers the opportunity to engage interprofessional students with a panel of older adults to assess health promotion metrics over time. To test this educational concept, we created Health Ambassador Teams for Seniors, also known as HATS. Utilizing a telehealth platform, interprofessional student teams were tasked with older adult wellness promotion. The annual Medicare wellness exam served as a template for patient encounters which was enhanced with key elements of geriatric assessment such as gait and balance, cognition, and functional evaluations. The objective was to have dyads of interprofessional students conduct telehealth visits and gather healthcare data to be used for serial patient encounters and track functional trajectories over time. As a proof of concept, pilot telehealth encounters with medical, physical therapy, nursing and occupational therapy students revealed that data on older adult functional performances such as gait speed, Timed Up and Go test (TUG), and Mini-Cog test could be acquired through telehealth. Equally importantly, trainees received diverse feedback from faculty, peers and volunteer patients. A Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) data repository allows trainees to track patient trends relative to their health promotion recommendations as well as handoff their patient panel to the next set of trainees. The HATS program promises to strengthen the Geriatric Workforce, especially with senior population health.

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Community Service Learning with First Peoples

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190219505.013.3 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Brydie-Leigh Bartleet ◽

Dawn Bennett ◽

Anne Power ◽

Naomi Sunderland

Keyword(s):

Service Learning ◽

Community Service ◽

Music Educators ◽

Learning Opportunities ◽

Community Music ◽

Culturally Appropriate ◽

Community Service Learning ◽

Intercultural Learning ◽

Music Making ◽

First Peoples

Community music educators worldwide face the challenge of preparing their students for working in increasingly diverse cultural contexts. These diverse contexts require distinctive approaches to community music-making that are respectful of, and responsive to, the customs and traditions of that cultural setting. The challenge for community music educators then becomes finding pedagogical approaches and strategies that both facilitate these sorts of intercultural learning experiences for their students and that engage with communities in culturally appropriate ways. This chapter unpacks these challenges and possibilities, and explores how the pedagogical strategy of community service learning can facilitate these sorts of dynamic intercultural learning opportunities. Specifically, it focuses on engaging with Australian First Peoples, and draws on eight years of community service learning in this field to inform the insights shared.

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The integration of a community service learning water project in a post-secondary chemistry lab

Chemistry Education Research and Practice ◽

10.1039/d0rp00374c ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Karen Ho ◽

Boris S. Svidinskiy ◽

Sahara R. Smith ◽

Christopher C. Lovallo ◽

Douglas B. Clark

Keyword(s):

Service Learning ◽

Experiential Learning ◽

Secondary Students ◽

Community Service ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Methodological Approach ◽

Community Service Learning ◽

Secondary Chemistry ◽

Post Secondary ◽

K 12

Community Service Learning (CSL) is an experiential learning approach that integrates community service into student projects and provides diverse learning opportunities to reduce interdisciplinary barriers. A semester-long chemistry curriculum with an integrated CSL intervention was implemented in a Canadian university to analyze the potential for engagement and positive attitudes toward chemistry as a meaningful undertaking for 14 post-secondary students in the laboratory as well as for their 400 K-12 student partners in the community. Traditionally, introductory science experiments typically involve repeating a cookbook recipe from a lab book, but this CSL project allowed the post-secondary and K-12 students to work collaboratively to determine the physical and chemical properties and total dissolved solids in the water fountains from the K-12 students' schools. Post-instructional surveys were completed by all learners and were analyzed using a mixed methodological approach with both quantitative and qualitative methods. The expected audience that may be interested in this study are those involved in teaching chemistry in higher education and at the K-12 level as well as those interested in service learning, community and civic engagement, experiential learning, and development of transferable skills in chemistry. The results demonstrate that both groups of students report favorable engagement and attitudes towards learning chemistry and higher self-confidence levels on performing lab skills after the activity. Furthermore, both groups of students expressed interest in exploring future projects, which is indicative of the positive impact of CSL and the mutual benefits of the partnership.

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Community Service-Learning: Why Can’t Canada Be More Like Mexico?

Engaged Scholar Journal Community-Engaged Research Teaching and Learning ◽

10.15402/esj.v4i1.307 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 39-59

Author(s):

Victoria Calvert ◽

Halia Valladares Montemayor

Keyword(s):

Service Learning ◽

Community Service ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

National Level ◽

Community Service Learning ◽

Community Partners ◽

Canadian Universities ◽

Post Secondary ◽

Volunteer Programs ◽

The Government

In Mexico, the community service strategy and requirements for undergraduate students are both longstanding and mandated by the Mexican Constitution. Students undertake a minimum of 480 hours of service during their undergraduate degrees, which are coordinated through their universities’ Social Service (SS) departments. Many Canadian universities and colleges offer community service through courses and volunteer programs; however, the practice and adoption levels vary widely. Student involvement with community partners, as represented through community service-learning (CSL) and volunteerism in Canada, are sponsored by many post-secondary institutions but are not driven by a national agenda. While, in Mexico, community service is documented at a departmental and institutional level for reporting to stakeholders and the government, in Canada, documentation of community service varies with the institutional mandate and is often sporadic or non-existent; the imperative for systematic student engagement and citizenship development has not been recognized at the national level. This research paper provides an overview of the community engagement practices in both countries, with the national patterns represented through a summative review of selected Canadian and Mexican universities. Suggestions for processes and practices for Canada are proposed based upon the Mexican model.

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Community Service-Learning in a Large Introductory Sociology Course: Reflections on the Instructional Experience

Engaged Scholar Journal Community-Engaged Research Teaching and Learning ◽

10.15402/esj.v4i1.308 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 61-78

Author(s):

Jana Grekul ◽

Wendy Aujla ◽

Greg Eklics ◽

Terra Manca ◽

Ashley Elaine York ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Graduate Students ◽

Service Learning ◽

Community Service ◽

Graduate Student ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Teaching Experience ◽

Pilot Project ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Community Service Learning ◽

Introductory Sociology

This paper reports on a pilot project that involved the incorporation of Community Service-Learning (CSL) into a large Introductory Sociology class by drawing on the critical reflections of the six graduate student instructors and the primary instructor who taught the course. Graduate student instructors individually facilitated weekly seminars for about 30 undergraduate students, half of which participated in CSL, completing 20 hours of volunteer work with a local non-profit community organization. We discuss the benefits of incorporating CSL into a large Introductory Sociology class and speculate on the value of our particular course format for the professional development of graduate student instructors. A main finding was the critical importance to graduate students of formal and informal training and collaboration prior to and during the delivery of the course. Graduate students found useful exposure to CSL as pedagogical theory and practice, and appreciated the hands-on teaching experience. Challenges with this course structure include the difficulty of seamlessly incorporating CSL student experiences into the class, dealing with the “CSL”/ “non CSL” student division, and the nature of some of the CSL placements. We conclude by discussing possible methods for dealing with these challenges.

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