Service learning in developing countries: Student outcomes including personal successes, seeing the world in new ways, and developing as health professionals

Local Partners’ Perspectives on Health Student Service-Learning Placements in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Pilot Qualitative Study with Partners from Vietnam and Timor-Leste

“…A university Medical Research Ethics Committee gave approval for this qualitative research. The university has partnered with community disability and rehabilitation services in Vietnam since 2011 and in Timor-Leste since 2014 (Crawford et al, 2017). These partnerships have provided physiotherapy, speech pathology and occupational therapy students with the opportunity to complete a student placement in an ISL context as part of their study programs.…”

“…The benefits and challenges of ISL for students, faculty members and academic programs have been well documented. A summary of student outcomes of ISL (Crawford et al, 2017) lists development of teamwork and collaborative practice, civic responsibility and ethical practice, interprofessional knowledge and skills, professional clinical skills, communication skills, self-confidence, self-awareness, and leadership skills as benefits to students participating in ISL. In addition, the immersion in diverse cultures has been found to result in increased cultural sensitivity and responsiveness, increased selfawareness around personal and cultural values, and magnified global perspectives throughout academic programs (Curtin et al, 2015;Pechak & Black, 2013;Sabo et al, 2015).…”

“…Students engaging in ISL programs have been exposed to social determinants contributing to global health, including resource-limited environments as well as contexts of political complexities, violence, oppressive social structures, and poverty (Hayward & Li, 2017). ISL experiences have also been found to be valuable in strengthening interprofessional practice and developing skills required for graduating health professionals, personal development, developing more mature world-views, and achievement of requirements for graduating health professionals in accredited occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology, and audiology programs (Crawford et al, 2017).…”

“…While this study considers the challenges and benefits to the international partner, only US-based faculty members contributed their perspectives and they do not include the perspectives of students or international partners. Little research explores the benefits and challenges of ISL from the perspectives of the international host community (Crawford et al, 2017;Pechak & Black, 2013).…”

Infusing Service-Learning into Allied Health Profession Curriculum: Perceived Enablers and Barriers

“…Furthermore, recent literature (Battaglia, 2016;Roskell, White & Bonner, 2012) is widely supports the use of service learning as an experiential pedagogy for developing those humanistic skills said to be in decline in health-related professional curricula. It aids the holistic development of the health professionals, both in discipline-specific skills and generic health professional skills such as interprofessional practice and cultural responsiveness (Crawford et al, 2017).…”