Culturally Effective Care for Refugee Populations: Interprofessional, Interactive Case Studies

Abstract

Introduction: Within health sciences education literature, the majority of reported student experiences with refugee populations are limited to traditional, professionally independent, elective courses and extracurricular volunteer opportunities. A simulated patient exercise is a learning opportunity that helps participants engage with material in real time in a realistic environment, demanding higher levels of learning. This session utilized a simulated patient facilitator in interprofessional small groups to explore common health needs and barriers to care among refugee populations. Methods: Health professions students from nine degree programs participated in a refugee health session in interprofessional teams of nine to 10 students to explore patient cases. The session concluded with a debriefing discussing the outcomes of the student-patient interaction, best practices, and exemplary practice models as takeaways. The simulated patient facilitators completed an Observation Checklist to assess students' grasp of learning objectives. Results: Five hundred twenty-four students participated in the refugee session, divided into 61 groups. Observation Checklists were completed for 58 groups (95%). Assessment of student engagement focused on general health needs common to refugee populations: barriers to health care, team and individual roles, bias, consequences of nontreatment, and social determinants of health. Most of the groups (95%) reported engagement between the simulated patient facilitator and the group of student providers. Qualitative data indicated student groups were knowledgeable in each of the overarching learning objectives. Discussion: This session allowed health sciences students to focus on culturally effective patient care for refugee populations as a part of an interprofessional team.

Pediatric Refugee Health Care Delivery in the Community Setting: An Educational Workshop for Multidisciplinary Family-Centered Care During Resettlement

“…The Refugee Health Elective materials published by Stone and colleagues in MedEdPORTAL provide more in-depth teaching and case-based learning, while Fitzgerald and colleagues offer robustly evaluated materials with a focus on culturally competent care. 26,29 Potential future directions include adding more domains to the cases and expanding the time allotted for discussion. Additionally, the delivery and evaluation of the workshop could be adapted for an online format with videoconferencing.…”

“…While previous publications in MedEdPORTAL provide excellent, comprehensive guidance on refugee health, none focus on the specific needs of pediatric and adolescent refugee health. [26][27][28][29] The intention is for this workshop to offer complementary materials to be used in combination with previous MedEdPORTAL publications. Additionally, the workshop content aligns with several of the Core Competencies defined by the Accreditation of Council for Graduate Medical Education: Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, Interpersonal and Communication Skills, Professionalism, and Systems-Based Practice.…”

Meeting the Grand Challenges in a Rural Community

“…Effective rural social workers have a broad base of practice knowledge and skill, and they respect the expertise of their collaborators in order to engage with clients, and assess their needs (Scales & Streeter, 2004). Interprofessional practice increases client access to appropriate interventions and treatments and encourages interprofessional dialogue on best practices, outcome evaluation and application of evidence-based practice (Fitzgerald et al, 2018). This approach stretches the available resources to best meet the health and welfare needs of rural communities (IPEC, 2016).…”

“…These roles include: counselor, educator, broker, case manager, mobilizer, mediator, negotiator, facilitator, and advocate (Kirst-Ashman, 2013). As a generalist practitioner, it is imperative that the social work professional has a broad knowledge of interprofessional roles and how collaboration is key to client health and overall client outcomes (Fitzgerald et al, 2018). The IET course provides an opportunity for students from ten different physical and behavioral health disciplines to learn together in a safe and controlled environment, while at the same time providing a valuable and rare service to a family in need.…”

The Structural Competency Working Group: Lessons from Iterative, Interdisciplinary Development of a Structural Competency Training Module

“…Structural competency builds upon existing social determinants of health, cultural competency, and cultural humility curricular efforts. 1,4,5,[22][23][24][25][26][27] In contrast to many curricula framed in terms of the social determinants of health that describe the existence of, but not the historical and contemporary drivers of, health disparities, structural competency situates these social determinants within a broader structural context. For example, a structural competency approach not only characterizes the epidemiology of racial health disparities-it examines the structures that have created and sustain racial inequity (i.e., structural racism).…”