Interdisciplinary Student Health Teams: Combining Medical Education and Service in a Rural Community‐based Experience

Abstract

Several initiatives have been introduced over the years to address the maldistribution of health care professionals and to improve access to care for underserved rural populations. One of these is the sponsorship of community-based, service-oriented teams comprised of students from various health disciplines. This study investigated extramural training as a complement to traditional hospital-based experiences. The specific objective of the study was to determine the extent to which the nation's medical schools combine training with a rural community-based experience in the form of an interdisciplinary student health team program. In the fall of 1994, a 32-item questionnaire was mailed to the chief academic or clinical affairs administrators of the nation's 126 allopathic medical schools. A total of 104 (82.5%) medical schools responded to the survey. Eighty-six of the respondents (82.7%) reported some type of rural training or public service activity; 22 (21.2%) acknowledged the sponsorship of an interdisciplinary student health team program. Small rural communities, those with populations of 5,000 or fewer, were the focus of 76 percent of the reporting programs. Nearly two-thirds of the reporting programs were located in the South, the region with the nation's lowest physician-to-population ratio. The nursing and medical professions were most frequently represented, although a wide range of disciplines were identified as participating on the student health teams. Activities of the teams included both ambulatory care and community outreach services. The majority of the programs used team-building exercises to enhance team effectiveness. Extramural training programs offer students a realistic examination of the social, cultural, economic, and political forces that influence both individual and community health. Rural community-based programs, such as interdisciplinary student health teams, should be valued because they can strengthen the link between the sponsoring institution's educational mission and its public service obligation.

A blueprint for interprofessional learning

“…Leaming must prepare students for the real world in which they will work. If that involves teams of health professionals working together, then the leaming needs to model and teach skills that contribute to that goal in increasingly realisdc and complex representadons (Candy, 1991;Hamilton et al, 1997;Lewis et al, 1998;Drinka & Clark, 2000). CL can do that.…”

“…This interconnectedness is developed by building on what is known, by making the training task similar to the target transfer task (Biggs, 1999;Custers & Boshuizen, 2002). The many relevant cases we use must progressively challenge and stimulate the students but not overwhelm them, though this is rarely done (Hamilton et al, 1997).…”

“…Case-based leaming using paper cases is more clinically realisdc than leaming about diseases as pathophysiological curiosides. Cases with simulated patients are generally more realisdc than paper cases and finally cases of real people in real distress are usually the most realisdc and relevant (Hamilton et at., 1997). The best learning, many theorists would argue, is in real-life contexts (Brown et al, 1989;Candy, 1991;Blumenfeld et al, 1997).…”

Interprofessional Education: Definitions, Student Competencies, and Guidelines for Implementation

“…5 The IOM has clearly stated that patients received safer, high quality care when health care professionals worked effectively in a team, communicated productively, and understood each other's roles. 5 Although there is an abundance of evidence supporting the IPE of health professions students, [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] this is not the norm in most schools and colleges of pharmacy. This review of IPE presents definitions, provides supporting evidence, outlines the need, proposes student competencies and objectives, summarizes the barriers to implementation, and defines elements critical for successful implementation.…”

Interdisciplinary health care training in the USA: lessons learned from a rural training grant program

“…Training programs with a public service component to their missions gain an additional effective method of meeting that objective. Patients and the community enjoy more access to care than they might otherwise receive and the quality of that care is signi cantly improved by virtue of the combined talents of the interdisciplinary team working in concert rather than in parallel orbits (Hayward et al, 1996;Depoy et al, 1997;Hamilton et al, 1997;Muus & Amundson, 1999;Dauphinee & Martin, 2000;Leeper et al, 2001).…”