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Addressing Cultural Competency in Pharmacy Education through International Service Learning and Community Engagement Kassam, Rosemin; Estrada, Augusto; Huang, Yvonne; Bhander, Birpaul; Collins, John B.

Abstract

This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a course in international service learning and community engagement for pharmacy undergraduate students. The course offered students opportunities to cultivate cultural competency in an international setting foreign to their own—Sub-Saharan Africa. The experience consisted of pre-departure preparation seminars followed by subsequent community immersion to experience, explore and confront personal attitudes and perceptions. A key feature of this course was its emphasis on a continuing cycle of learning, community engagement and reflection. Three students participated, a near-maximum cohort. Their daily self-reflections were qualitatively analyzed to document the impact of their cultural learning and experiences and revealed meaningful learning in the domains of self-assessment and awareness of their personal and professional culture, exposure to a participatory health delivery model involving the patient, the community and a multidisciplinary team and opportunities to engage in patient care in a different cultural setting. This proof-of-concept course provided students with experiences that were life-changing on both personal and professional levels and confirmed the viability and relevance of international service learning for the pharmacy field within its university-wide mandate.

Item Metadata

Title
Addressing Cultural Competency in Pharmacy Education through International Service Learning and Community Engagement
Creator
Kassam, Rosemin; Estrada, Augusto; Huang, Yvonne; Bhander, Birpaul; Collins, John B.
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2013-08-09
Description
This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a course in international service learning and community engagement for pharmacy undergraduate students. The course offered students opportunities to cultivate cultural competency in an international setting foreign to their own—Sub-Saharan Africa. The experience consisted of pre-departure preparation seminars followed by subsequent community immersion to experience, explore and confront personal attitudes and perceptions. A key feature of this course was its emphasis on a continuing cycle of learning, community engagement and reflection. Three students participated, a near-maximum cohort. Their daily self-reflections were qualitatively analyzed to document the impact of their cultural learning and experiences and revealed meaningful learning in the domains of self-assessment and awareness of their personal and professional culture, exposure to a participatory health delivery model involving the patient, the community and a multidisciplinary team and opportunities to engage in patient care in a different cultural setting. This proof-of-concept course provided students with experiences that were life-changing on both personal and professional levels and confirmed the viability and relevance of international service learning for the pharmacy field within its university-wide mandate.
Subject
Cultural competence; International service learning; Undergraduate pharmacy education
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2019-05-08
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 3.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0378645
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/70127
Affiliation
Education, Faculty of; Medicine, Faculty of; Non UBC; Educational Studies (EDST), Department of; Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of
Citation
Pharmacy 1 (1): 16-33 (2013)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/pharmacy1010016
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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Rights

CC BY 3.0