Stronger When Combined:Interprofessional Service Learning

at the County Jail

Kerry Dunn, JD, PHD, MSWShelley Cohen Konrad, PhD, LCSW, FNAP

Kris Hall, MFAApril 10, 2015

Interprofessional Health Care SummitArmstrong State University

• Urban and Oceanside Campuses• 13 Health Professions; 8085• Educates Majority of Maine’s

Health Professionals• Robust IPE Infrastructure

IPE CollaborativeCenter for ExcellenceCore IPE Curriculum &

ClassroomsSignature EventsIP Team ImmersionStudent-led Mini-GrantsIP Honors DistinctionIP Service LearningIP GrantsClinical Education SitesIP Faculty DevelopmentIPCP Community Summits

• Translate and implement IPEC Competencies into community-based practices

• Expose students to community-based practice and service in a range of settings with vulnerable, underserved and marginalized populations

• Prepare students for work with a broader teamwork paradigm

Multiple workers from different professional and service backgrounds providing comprehensive health and health-related services working with individuals, families, caregivers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care across settingsFramework for Action on Interprofessional Education & Collaborative Practice WHO, 2010

IPE Service Learning: Objectives

• Enhance critical and reflective learning through hands on, community-based activities.

• Apply interprofessional knowledge and skills to real life situations.

• Gain lived knowledge of others’ professional roles and scopes of practice

• Achieve a sense of civic and social responsibility through community partnerships.

(Kolomer, Quinn, & Steele, 2010)

UNE-CCJ Collaboration• Over 100 UNE students and 10 faculty, engaging in health and

wellness projects at the Cumberland County Jail

• Projects designed by students, inmates, jail staff, and faculty working together to identify ways to use university resources to address needs at CCJ

Cumberland County Jail

Current population: 450Budget: $14,335,838; Staff: 200

Health Challenges in Jails

Jail inmates have higher than average rates of:

oCommunicable disease (MRSA, TB, Hep B&C)

oHIV/AIDS

oChronic disease (diabetes, hypertension, asthma)

oMental Illness

oAddiction

oSuicide risk

Security v. Rehabilitation

oFew education opportunities for inmates

oMinimal health, dental, and mental health services

oLimited preparation

for re-entry

oShort length of stay

oSignificant fiscal

restraints

Inside-Out Classroom Model: Transformation

• “Inside-Out” model: college and inmate students study issues of crime and justice as peers.

• Designed to create a ‘safe enough’ environment for the expression of multiple perspectives, experiences, and agendas (Pompa, 2005).

Learning With and From in Context• Distinctive Learning Elements:• Absence of personal freedom enforced by institutional culture• Students experience restrictions & jail customs• Stereotypes and stigma • Political nature of crime policy and controversial role of prisons in

U.S. society. • Learning Outcomes:• Greater affectiveunderstanding of the experiences, challenges, &needs of incarcerated people• Firsthand experience of health disparities.

IPE Faculty Challenges

• Acknowledgement that respect is earned one encounter at a time.

• Meet curricular needs in a way that does not exploit the inmates for the benefit of student learning.

• Recognition that students are engaged in an interactive cultural immersion experience with individuals whose life circumstances may be markedly different from their own.

• Acknowledgement of faculty assumptions and biases.

• Necessary Debriefing

UNE-CCJ Collaboration

PROCESS

Collaboration Mutual BenefitDialogue

WWW at CCJ(Weekly Wellness Workshops)

• Health Education (Hygiene; Stress)• Support Groups• Exercise Training

Social Work, Nursing, Physician Assistant & Physical

& Occupational Therapy

Evaluation and Refinement• Evaluation based on participatory action

research principles “look-think-act” loop (Stringer, 1999).

• Students and inmates “look” at the issues together, they “think” about solutions, “act” to implement their solution, then “look” at the results.

• From 2013-2014 students debriefed the final “look” portion of the “look-think-act loop”

(1) a whole-group debriefing session

(2) completion of open-ended surveys.

Engaged IPE Learning

Student Transformation• The health and social disparities faced by people

incarcerated at the jail – cultural knowledge.

• Awareness of “… the diversity that exists among inmates -their backgrounds, social status, education, and family lives.”

• Confidence in the ability to collectively address these disparities; change is possible – “break the cycle”

• Value of learning and working in interprofessional teams; broadened definition of teamwork and team membership.

Students not only saw inmates as human but the complexity of their humanness.

References

• Kolomer, S., Quinn, M. E. & Steele, K. (2010). Interdisciplinary Health Fairs for Older Adults and the Value of Interprofessional Service Learning. Journal of Community Practice, 18(2-3), 267-279.

• Pompa, L. (2005). Service-learning as crucible: Reflections on immersion, context, power, and transformation. In D.W. Butin (Ed.), Service learning in higher education. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan.

• Stringer, E.T. (1999). Action Research 2nd Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

• World Health Organization (2010). Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education & Collaborative Practice. Washington, D. C., National Academies Press.

Kerry Dunn: kdunn5@une.edu

Shelley Cohen Konrad: scohenkonrad@une.edu

Kris Hall: chall4@une.edu

http://www.une.edu/wchp/ipec/ceipe