Interprofessional Service Learning - responding to community identified needs and developing essential public health skills

Service Learning is an educational pedagogy that directs students to participate in organized service activities that meet identified community needs, enhances student understanding of course content, enhances professional skills, and increases sense of civic responsibility. Our Interprofessional Service Learning experience, started in 2008, resulted with several sustainable projects, involving hundreds of students from various health professions (public health, medicine, pharmacy, allied health professions, and nursing) in underserved communities in Omaha. In addition, students from the School of Social Work, College of Information Systems and Technology, and the School of Communication from the neighboring college campus, took part in the service learning experiences with the following projects: Domestic Violence EMPOWER project (YWCA), Homeless Shelter ‘Finding a Voice', Refugees health - Bridge to Care' project, Douglas County Correction Center – education, screening, treatment program for STDs, and Decreasing the Bone Marrow Donor Deficit among African American Adults. In this presentation we will review the rational for Interprofessional Education, and the benefits of Service Learning pedagogy. We will share our course development and planning history, faculty recruitment and training, tool development to assess student learning and evaluate the projects and the overall program, and provide an overview of continuous developments in 2011. Following our presentation we will engage audience in a discussion about shared experiences, challenges, and successes in interprofessional work, service learning and academia –community partnerships.