Leadership Skills for Social Change in Health

Modules for On-line Service Learning

In 2008, Dr. Nolen, along with Dr. Sandra Riegle of the Institute for the Medical Humanities, were presented a President’s Cabinet Award to strengthen the effectiveness of community service-learning among UTMB students.

UTMB hosts a variety of service organizations comprised of medical, nursing and allied health students committed to the health of the underserved. Through their service students not only improve their knowledge of healthcare practice; they return with experiences that transform their lives and enrich their careers. Overcoming barriers imposed by cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic differences, these student volunteers are developing skills needed to treat diverse populations—skills that cannot be taught in the classroom, and which these service experiences richly afford.

This project will develop on-line educational modules to prepare students for service learning experiences. Online, on-demand educational modules are being developed on topics including:

• community-based preventive care
• health disparities and social determinants of health
• behavioral change
• health policy and
• advocacy

Through service-learning, students will improve their ability to work cooperatively in teams with various skills and areas of expertise. They will increase their knowledge of how society shapes health, and strengthen their sense of connection to communities and the individuals within those communities. Students will become more aware of the various barriers patients face in improving their health, and what they can do proactively to break down those barriers.

Individual modules are expected to be available starting in June 2009.

Background on the challenge.

This service-learning project responds to specific needs revealed by the students’ work in low socioeconomic status communities, for example, the work of Frontera de Salud student volunteers in south Texas and along the Gulf Coast (including Galveston Country). First, access to clinics and primary care doctors in these communities is largely unavailable, resulting in a disproportionate burden of chronic disease, e.g. diabetes. There is a pressing need to instruct health professions students in alternative, high-yield models of care, particularly community-based models that focus on prevention and that employ interdisciplinary teams. Second, serving these communities has increased the students’ awareness of social determinants of health such as housing and basic services (e.g. water and sanitation), and engendered keen appreciation for the critical role that policy plays in promoting health. There is a need to familiarize students with policies to optimize their influence on the healthcare system. Third, research has demonstrated (and educators have noted) the tendency toward cynicism among students confronted by the healthcare system’s inability to serve all those in need. To counteract this pernicious trend, occasions are needed for students to act on their service idealism. Finally, as US healthcare in general confronts the limits of costly, clinic- and hospital-based care, there is an overwhelming need to translate the cost-efficient, community-based, interdisciplinary lessons learned in the students’ community service into the healthcare system at large. The proposed service- learning project will strengthen students’ understanding of how healthcare practice, policy, and advocacy can create a virtuous cycle of knowledge and practice, and render these students’ care all the more real and effective.

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