Interprofessional, Intercollegiate Sustainable Rehabilitation and Education Through a Service Learning Experience
Background/Purpose. International service learning (ISL) is a pedagogy suggested to produce “high impact” learning and outcomes for students and the community by combining community service with structured learning objectives, preparation, and reflection. ISL benefits for students include enhanced cultural competence, critical thinking, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and social responsibility. However, focusing solely on student benefits overlooks the shared responsibility for reciprocal community benefits and the importance of ethical conduct in diverse settings. The key component of an ethical ISL experience is using a collaborative model in which the community’s needs drive the structure of the experience, and community organizations are integral partners in the equation. An ISL model was created and implemented to provide sustainable rehabilitation services and education to residents and healthcare workers in Belize. Five months the ISL, faculty, and students collaborate with each community partner and plan projects to meet their needs. Based on this collaboration, service projects are created and presented during the ISL experience. To evaluate the impact of our interprofessional, multi-community partnership, we surveyed community partners and patients/clients to evaluate satisfaction and sustainability immediately following the rehabilitation or education provided and 6 months post-visit. The purpose of this is two-fold: the first is to present our model for implementing a sustainable ISL, and the second is to share our survey results on sustainability and satisfaction. Methods. Each community leader and all adults, parents, and caregivers who attended a rehabilitation session were eligible to participate. After obtaining electronic consent, subjects completed a 5-question survey. Four Likert-scale questions focused on satisfaction, communication, and sustainability. The fifth question was an open-ended question seeking additional comments about services provided. The survey for the community leaders focused on meeting the community partner's needs, cultural appropriateness, sustainability, and the relationship between the community partner and the interdisciplinary team. The Institutional Review Boards of Alvernia University and Misericordia University approved the study protocol. Data Analysis. Data will be collected six months after the ISL experience in June 2024. The results of the Likert-Scale questions will be presented using description statistics (Mean and standard deviation, SD). Qualitative data will be analyzed through a systematic process involving coding, identifying themes and patterns, interpretation, and validation. Results. One hundred and sixty people and seven community partners completed the survey immediately following receiving rehabilitation and education in Belize. Conclusion and Clinical Relevance will be shared at the time of the presentation.