Addressing Population Health through Interprofessional Community Engagement

Cohort: 2018
Fellow: Veronica Young

Pharmacists are an integral member of the health care team, trained to provide care based on evidence. However, the nationwide call-to-action to transform the delivery of care requires a cultural shift in educating students in health professions programs. The rapidly evolving health ecosystem mandates practitioners to work collaboratively in teams to provide person-centered and population oriented care. The ability to provide population-oriented care requires students to have a deeper appreciation of how social determinants adversely impacts health outcomes and that improving health requires collaborations with the community and other health professionals. This project addresses the need for innovative approaches to increase pharmacy student’s confidence and competence in working with members of other professions and the community to address barriers to care and improved health outcomes. The activities proposed by my project will be integrated into the third year of the required pharmacy curriculum through a 2-semester course titled, “Foundations of Professional Development.” It will be part of the thematic integration of interprofessional education, as mandated by new standards from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. The key elements of my project involves embedding the following requirements into the course: (1) interprofessional, place based immersions, (2) address a community-identified issue that impacts health using the model for improvement, (3) student mentoring from faculty and community partner, (4) presentation of experience, and (5) value to the community.