Arndell Cynthia, Proffitt Brenda, Disco Michel, Clithero Amy
Department of Internal Medicine, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, New Mexico, USA.
Educ Health (Abingdon). 2014 Jan-Apr;27(1):99-102. doi: 10.4103/1357-6283.134361.
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNMHSC), located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, has an international reputation for developing and implementing curricular initiatives addressing health inequities. The Street Outreach and Shelter Care elective is designed to provide interprofessional service learning opportunities for senior pharmacy and medical students addressing the needs of our nation's most marginalized population-those experiencing homelessness.
Our institution collaborated with multiple community partners serving the homeless to develop, implement and teach a 4-week senior elective for health professions students. During this elective, senior pharmacy and medical student teams provide individualized health care to men in local homeless shelter facilities. Students also participate in street outreach programs across a continuum of homeless populations. Weekly interprofessional education (IPE) faculty-facilitated sessions allow students to reflect on their experiences and learn from other discipline perspectives.
Student evaluations uniformly reflect the transformative nature of the rotation since its inception, April 2009. Our outcomes corroborated the findings of similar service learning models developed to sensitize health professions students to the complex challenges of homeless populations.
Academic centers can play a central role in health education reform by instituting curricula focusing on the primacy of population welfare and just distribution of resources. Senior year is an opportune time to reinforce social accountability among health professions before graduation. This elective is based on adult principles of learning and can serve as an international educational model for developing interprofessional curricular innovations addressing the healthcare needs of vulnerable populations.
位于美国新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基的新墨西哥大学健康科学中心（UNMHSC）在开发和实施解决健康不平等问题的课程倡议方面享有国际声誉。街头外展和庇护所护理选修课旨在为高年级药学和医学学生提供跨专业服务学习机会，以满足我国最边缘化人群——无家可归者的需求。
我们的机构与多个为无家可归者服务的社区合作伙伴合作，为健康专业学生开发、实施并教授一门为期4周的高年级选修课。在这门选修课期间，高年级药学和医学学生团队为当地无家可归者庇护所设施中的男性提供个性化医疗服务。学生们还参与针对不同无家可归人群的街头外展项目。每周由跨专业教育（IPE）教员主持的课程让学生反思他们的经历，并从其他学科的角度学习。
自2009年4月开设以来，学生评估一致反映了该轮转的变革性质。我们的结果证实了类似服务学习模式的研究结果，这些模式旨在让健康专业学生认识到无家可归人群面临的复杂挑战。
学术中心可以通过设立注重人群福利至上和资源公平分配的课程，在健康教育改革中发挥核心作用。高年级是在毕业前强化健康专业人员社会责任感的合适时机。这门选修课基于成人学习原则，可作为一种国际教育模式，用于开发解决弱势群体医疗需求的跨专业课程创新。
