Preparing Learners for Community-Engaged Public Health Practice

Abstract

Public health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities in which they live. As such, community health assessment and engagement are critical elements that Master of Public Health (MPH) students must learn. Even so, those with graduate public health degrees often lack the ability to engage in this foundational aspect of public health practice. The purpose of this paper is to describe a curricular model that utilizes didactic preparation along with the collaboration of community-academic partners (CAPs) in a service-learning format to prepare MPH students for successful community assessment and engagement. In addition to enhancing the learning experience for students, this curricular approach assures meaningful engagement which benefits communities, especially those which are underserved. The relationships established through the implementation of this model were critical in the COVID-19 community response.

Service-learning under COVID-19: A scoping review of the challenges and opportunities for practicing service-learning in the ‘New Normal’

“…In order to successfully complete the ‘Pandemic Medicine Elective’ course, apart from completing service-learning hours, attending virtual classes, and being part of the ‘Student Initiatives’, students had to complete a reflection paper “to share their experiences during the course and describe the impact the elective had on their perspective as future physicians” (p. 845). Importantly, as the evidence suggests that ICT can be strategically and functionally adopted in instances of adapting service-learning projects to the COVID-19 pandemic ( * Archie-Booker et al, 2020 , * Doody et al, 2020 , * Lin and Shek, 2021 , * Salter et al, 2020 , * Tian and Noel, 2020 ) as well as to support newly developed projects during the pandemic ( * Bickerton et al, 2020 , * Elengickal et al, 2021 , * Ferguson et al, 2021 , * Grilo et al, 2021 , * Lewis and Strano‐Paul, 2021 , * Solá and Marquez, 2020 , * Tsima et al, 2020 ), practitioners may consider harnessing the potential of ICT in service-learning regardless of the presence of disasters/crises. For example, a hybrid mode may be adopted to provide students with greater flexibility and autonomy in choosing how they want to be part of service-learning activities.…”