Implementing service-learning in the pharmacy curriculum

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

To fulfill their S-L requirement, students are required to complete a minimum of 18 hours of continuous service within a single service organization over a period of 12 weeks during the semester. Students must select a service organization that is primarily focused on serving the community. Working with community service organizations provides students with an opportunity to learn more about the people that they may later serve in their pharmacies.

This program differs from other pharmacy programs in that some of the programs are targeted toward a specific agency or group of people. The primary goal in the students' selection of an agency was that the experience must be a mutually-fulfilling reciprocal arrangement where students and community members can each be learners and teachers, servers and served. Because the S-L experience occurs during the first professional year of pharmacy school, students' knowledge of drugs and disease states are minimal. Thus, a more general approach was taken by encouraging students to select an agency based on an area of interest in which they felt the need to explore through experiential learning.

To ensure that students understand the needs and issues of their chosen population, they are required to have direct personal contact with the clientele that the agency serves. The direct personal contact is facilitated by involving the students in tasks that address the specific needs of the agency's clientele. Students are instructed to avoid activities (e.g., filing papers, answering the telephone) that do not involve interacting directly with the clientele.

Service Agency Resources

The University of Texas (UT) provides students with several resources to aid in selecting an agency. The UT Volunteer Center is a campus-based clearinghouse and action center for UT students, faculty, and staff: It houses a computer database with over 900 projects for more than 200 agencies in Austin. Students can make an appointment for a one-on-one interview with the Center's representatives or they can query more than 30 different information sheets on "areas of interest." Examples of these "areas of interest" include the following: children and youth, senior citizens, mental health, healthcare, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, disabilities, hunger and homelessness, substance abuse, women's issues, and diversity. Both of these search avenues provide the student with project descriptions, contact persons, as well as shuttle bus routes to the locations.

The UT Volunteer Center also sponsors a Volunteer Fair at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters. Many students take advantage of the Volunteer Fair where they can meet faceto-face with over 100 agency representatives and discuss with them how their personal interests and course requirements can help meet the needs of the agencies. In addition to the above, students are also allowed to seek out agencies on their own. Once a student identifies an agency, the supervisor must agree to the terms of the course and sign the written supervisor agreement form (Appendix A). Students must also submit this form to the course coordinator for approval.