Kitchen Wizards: Community Engaged Learning at The Wolfville Farmers’ Market

This article tells the story of an introductory, undergraduate required course with a significant community service-learning project developed in partnership between the School of Nutrition and Dietetics at Acadia University and the Wolfville Farmers’ Market. This partnership began in 2009, with the vision of putting food and community at the centre of the School’s pedagogy. After two years of developing a trusting relationship between the partners with the integration of focused assignments, a community-service learning initiative called Kitchen Wizards was created. Kitchen Wizards, now in its 10th year, engages 50 to 80 first-year School of Nutrition and Dietetics’ students with the community each fall semester through a Food Commodities course. The initiative introduces 6 to 12-year-old children to in-season local vegetables through a taste-testing experience centered around a simple, healthy recipe made from local produce at the Farmer’s Market, which gives the children purchasing power to buy a vegetable with a three-dollar voucher after participating in the tasting. This Kitchen Wizard’s story was developed from an action research case study, grounded in a constructivist paradigm, which explored the community-valued outcomes of this program over a three-year period, as well as the student and institutional benefits. This study was conducted by a team that included the Wolfville Farmers’ Market Coordinator and the Director of the School of Nutrition and Dietetics who teaches the Food Commodities course. Through observation, dialogue and in-depth interviews conducted with students, teaching assistants, community members, Market staff, faculty, and university administration, insights were derived that illuminate community engaged learning as a key strategy for teaching about local food systems that puts both food and community at the centre.

Competences of Adult Learning Facilitators in Community Service Learning: A Review of Literatures

Community Service Learning (CSL) is designed to help communities in solving their social problems. The role of adult learning facilitators is important to ensure that all the programs of CSL are running well. This study aims to investigate the competences of adult learning facilitators in community service learning programs. The methodology used in this study is literature review. A total of 85 journal papers were identified by the search machine. However, only 15 articles selected to be reviewed in this study. The result shows that there are five main competences that should be mastered by learning facilitators in community services, such as: Knowledge, Management, Communication, Assessment, and Motivation (KoMCAMo). It can be concluded that the competences of adult learning facilitators play significant role to implement the CSL among community`s members. For recommendation, the future projects related to CSL need to require competent facilitators to enhance participation of community for joining the programs. The regular trainings are encouraged to adult learning facilitators to create an effective CLS`s program.

Academic Service Learning for Underprivileged Communities in Pakistan: Enhancing Development beyond Economics

This study focuses on development of disadvantaged communities via an Academic Service Learning project, incorporated in the PhD coursework of a private university. School teachers from an underprivileged community in a charitable village school of Baluchistan were given training by the students after doing interviews for needs analysis and developing and implementing a workshop based on their needs. As part of the workshop evaluation process, teachers’ perspectives were examined after teachers had incorporated the workshop strategies in their classrooms. Findings were highly positive, because teachers demonstrated enhancement in learning and constructive gain in scholarship which they could transfer to students and to other teachers in the community. Data from students who had carried out the project, accentuated improved learning and a keen desire for voluntary participation in service learning projects for helping underprivileged communities. This study not only contributes to the body of literature in academic and community service learning in the Pakistani educational context, but elaborates on the value of factors beyond economics for advancement of deprived segments of society.

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

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.

An Undergraduate Medical Education Framework for Refugee and Migrant Health: Curriculum Development and Conceptual Approaches

Background: International migration, especially forced migration, highlights important medical training needs including cross-cultural communication, human rights, as well as global health competencies for physical and mental healthcare. This paper responds to the call for a ‘trauma informed’ refugee health curriculum framework from medical students and global health faculty. Methods: We used a mixed-methods approach to develop a guiding medical undergraduate refugee and migrant health curriculum framework. We conducted a scoping review, key informant faculty interviews and e-surveys, and then, integrated our results into a competency-based curriculum framework with values and principles, learning objectives and curriculum delivery methods and evaluation. Results: The majority of our Canadian medical faculty respondents reported some refugee health learning objectives within their undergraduate medical curriculum. The most prevalent learning objective topics included access to care barriers, social determinants of health for refugees, cross-cultural communication skills, global health epidemiology, challenges and pitfalls of providing care and mental health. We report competency-based learning objectives and primary and secondary topics. We also discuss curriculum delivery and evaluation methods such as community service learning with reflection exercises. Conclusions: This guiding undergraduate medical education curriculum suggests integrating cross-cultural communication skills, exploration of access to care barriers for newcomers, and system approaches to improve refugee and migrant healthcare. Programs should also consider social determinants of health, community service learning and the development of links to community resettlement and refugee organizations.