Implementing service-learning in the pharmacy curriculum

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Fall 2000 by Barner, Jamie C

The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure, content and requirements of the service-learning component of first professional year pharmacy students. In addition, the paper also provides excerpts from student reaction logs describing their experiences. To fulfill the service-learning requirement, students must meet the following criteria: (r) serve a minimum of 18 hours within a single service organization; (ir) be directly involved with the agency's clientele; and (iii) complete specific tasks that address concrete human needs. To document their activities, students must obtain a written agreement from the agency supervisor, who also documents time spent in the agency. To ensure a successful experience, students are required to submit written goals and objectives prior to starting their experience. At mid-semester, students are required to submit a reaction log that reflects upon their experiences. At the end of the semester, students submit a paper detailing their experiences and their perceptions of service to the community. Students served in a variety of settings and agencies including: elementary schools, nursing homes, AIDS hospices, Habitat for Humanity, cancer centers, Alzheimer's groups, homeless, mentally ill, and shelters. The reaction logs and the written papers reflected that the experience was enlightening and educational. Service-learning is a way to a mutually-fulfilling reciprocal arrangement where students and community members can each be learners and teachers, servers and served. Implementing this type of experiential education may help to introduce the concepts of caring and social support into the curriculum.

INTRODUCTION

In a 1997 AACP Position Paper(l), Service-Learning (S-L) was described as another type of experiential education that could help introduce and enforce the concept of caring and social support into the curriculum. The report also stated that S-L could provide an opportunity to introduce interdisciplinary or interprofessional teams into the curriculum. Several pharmacy schools/colleges have either incorporated or are working towards incorporating S-L into their curricula(2-15) either as an elective component or as a required course. S-L projects in pharmacy schools/colleges focused primarily on health education and promotion. Some of the intended outcomes of these projects were to help students improve their communication skills and to help them gain a better understanding of community issues and needs. The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of how The University of Texas College of Pharmacy (UT-COP) has incorporated S-L into the curriculum as a required component.

Definition/History of Service-Learning

As a type of experiential education, the term Service-- Learning equally emphasizes Service (community action) and Learning (additional knowledge gained) with the two components being equally balanced and integrated. The hyphen between the two terms signifies the role of reflection to integrate both service and leaming(16). S-L differs from volunteerism where the primary goal of the community action is serving and the primary beneficiary is the recipient of the service. The reciprocal relationship of S-L is one that benefits both the servers and the served(17).

The theoretical roots of S-L stem back to the 1930s with John Dewey(18), who believed that learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection. Since this time, S-L programs have been proliferating in variety of educational settings spanning from middle schools to higher education(19). Recently, other health professions have embraced the S-L concept by developing S-L programs and incorporating them into the curriculum(20-24).

S-L programs in pharmacy schools/colleges vary in their design and content. Several programs(3,5,7,10-15) have incorporated S-L throughout the curriculum ranging from companionship and community service experiences for first year pharmacy students to more health care and health promotion services for advanced students. One school(4) has developed an interdisciplinary team of pharmacy, nursing, medical, dental, and physician assistant students. This interdisciplinary team worked together to develop health education and promotional programs for social services agencies. The S-L programs described above were offered as elective courses or were part of a voluntary pilot project.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM

Service-Learning was started in the fall of 1996 at the University of Texas, College of Pharmacy. Since the start of the program, two revisions have been made. The required number of S-L hours was reduced from 24 to 18 hours and the criteria for choosing a S-L experience was revised to ensure that students had contact with people being served by the agency.

Currently, students are required to complete a S-L experience. During their first professional year of pharmacy school, students are enrolled in a two-semester course entitled, "Introduction to Pharmacy." As a part of this course, students are required to complete a Shadowing experience during one semester and a S-L experience during the alternate semester. The following will focus on the structure of the S-L experience.