277334
Partnerships for health - jeff health and the Rwanda village concept project – a model of interdisciplinary health professions student global education
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
: 8:50 a.m. - 9:10 a.m.
James Plumb, MD, MPH,
Department of Family and Community Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Medical College - Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
Ellen Plumb, MD,
Department of Family and Community Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
A partnership between the Rwanda Village Concept Project (RVCP), a medical student program in Butare, and Jeff HEALTH (Helping East Africans Link to Health), a multidisciplinary student organization at Thomas Jefferson University, has been working in two Rwandan villages for the past five years. Initially, The Rwanda Health and Healing Project consisted of two programs, a Genocide Survivors Village Transformation and creation of a Genocide Memorial Park. These programs lead to a comprehensive community health assessment, which: 1) documented the needs through key informant interviews and focus groups; 2) identified health resources currently available; and 3) reviewed needs in context of the social and political history of Rwanda. The partnership has taken shape based on this assessment and students' learning experiences. Medical, Nursing, Public Health and Occupational Therapy students have implemented programs in hygiene, malnutrition, HIV education, and malaria prevention. The Rwandan students monitor these programs monthly when the Jeff HEALTH students are stateside. The team partnered with the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Engineers Without Borders in a latrine construction project. For each of the past 4 years, 3 Rwandan medical students have spent 2 months Jefferson exploring community medicine as a discipline. A formal educational program and peer mentoring prepares Jeff HEALTH students for immersion into Rwandan projects. Based on the success of this model of interdisciplinary collaboration, Jefferson has expanded its Global Health education initiatives to a 4-year longitudinal area of concentration in Population Health for medical students. Program evaluation is on-going and results will be presented.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education
Learning Objectives:
Describe a method to develop a collaborative international health professional interdisciplinary student driven initiative
Formulate strategies for sustaining programs through cooperative agreements between students at a United States Academic Health Center and an East African Medical School
Design an interdisciplinary student global education program based on student experiences and interest
Keyword(s): Global Education, Students
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have developed, implemented and evaluated the interdiscilinary global health project to be presented. I have travelled to, and have been involved in medical and public health student exchnage programs for the past 20 years in Uganda and Rwanda, focusing on palliative care, hygiene training, HIV prevention, family planing, micro-economic projects and malnutrition. I have been teaching global health courses for the past 6 years, and creating interdiscilpinary learning and service opportunities intrnationally
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
