Benefits of interprofessional learning for health care professional students and community organizations

Issues:  Intersecting health and social issues exist for homeless individuals and families trying to maintain safe, affordable housing in the Davidson County area of Nashville, Tennessee.  Factors such as unemployment, poor health, and legal challenges can all affect access to housing.   

Description:  This issue was addressed through a partnership between Urban Housing Solutions (UHS), a non-profit organization that provides affordable housing for the displaced, and the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance (MVA) Interprofessional Education (IPE) Collaborative.  The MVA IPE Collaborative is an interprofessional, multi-institutional group of students and faculty engaged in community interventions.  Diverse student teams from an array of health related disciplines were assembled to identify opportunities for community mobilization and assess resource utilization.   Focus groups and interviews were conducted to determine how residents used healthcare and community resources to successfully maintain housing.  Using this information, students will create a tool to assist staff and incoming residents in navigating and identifying resources that can positively impact health and housing.    

Lessons Learned:  The use of a community-engaged, service-learning platform maximizes the benefits for all parties involved. Residents of UHS have had an opportunity to share their concerns, success stories, and desires, resulting in the initial stages of community mobilization. UHS will ultimately be provided with a model to improve their residents’ experiences and increase staff capacity to guide incoming resident through this transitional stage.

Recommendations:  This experience educates students on the social determinants of health by using service learning. Community organizations and IPE students can form meaningful partnerships to address community issues.