Pharm 439: Community Service

Outreach

Karan Dawson, Ph.D., R.Ph.John Perkins, Ph.D.

School of Pharmacy

Michaelanne JundtCarlson Center.

Service Learning: What Is It?

A structured learning experience which combines community service with preparation and reflection. Students participating in service-learning activities are not only expected to provide direct community service but also to learn about the context in which the service is provided, and to understand the connection between the service, their academic course work, and their role as a professional and citizen. (Seifer, 1997, 2001*).

Benefits of Service Learning

• Challenge personal and social assumption, values, beliefs

• Develop deliberative, collaborative, and leadership skills

• Consider civic, moral, ethical implications of the applications of knowledge in professional and civic life

• Connect academic content with hands-on experience by exploring community related opportunities

• Increase self-efficacy and analytical skills

Stated Course Objectives

• Engage in community based service as preparation for becoming a culturally competent change agent

• Participate in community activities directed toward solving current public health problems

• Identify quality of life issues, relating these issues appropriately to pharmaceutical care

• Explore behaviors and values of professionalism

• Observe root causes of illness and disability

• Promote health and pharmacy practice

Unstated Course Objectives

• Meet faculty and other practitioners as a means to develop supportive professional relationships

• Practice reflective thinking

• Develop “professional artistry”

Roles and Responsibilities

Participation in service learning commits you to

• Representing the UW, the School of Pharmacy, the profession of pharmacy, and yourself as a responsible, dynamic, professional person

• Fulfill the hours and schedule determined by the organization

Site Evaluation Criteria

of Students• Made an effort to learn • Showed responsibility• Met expected performance levels • Suited to task• Acted as a contributor• Showed interest• Exhibited professionalism• Contacted the site within a week of

placement

Reflective Thinking Defined

“[A]ctive, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it.”

John Dewey

Reflective thinkers need to be

• willing to explore

• curious

• assertive

• risk takers

In order to gain self-awareness, self-knowledge, and new understandings of the world.

Why Be Reflective?

• To achieve “professional artistry” (Schon, 1987).

• Ability to cope with contradictions, paradoxes and dilemmas – Expect the unexpected– Willing and able to re-examine what

s/he already “knows”– Restructure strategies, or reframing

the problem. – Invent on-the-spot experiments to

put new understandings to the test or to answer the puzzling questions that have arise from an event.

Practice Reflection

“If you have come to help me you can go home again. But if you see my struggle as part of your own survival, then perhaps we can work together.” Australian Aborigine woman

• What does this quote mean to you?

• How might this meaning relate to your future

- service learning experience?

- professional practice?

Pharm 439

Goals

• Explore processes and values that foster the development of pharmacy professionalism

• Practice using tools that help manage uncertainty and ambiguity

Pharm 439

Objectives

• Practice using selected qualitative research tools in the community

• Reflect on experiences at service learning (SL) sites including personal responses to situations, people, ideas, etc.

• Observe

• Value small group process

• Apply these tools to continuous professional development

Pharm 439

Objectives

• Develop small group facilitation and participation skills (use the forms)

• Practice using selected qualitative research tools in the community

• Apply critical thinking to life situations especially as encountered in service learning and small group activities (Use Miniature Guide).

Pharm 439

Objectives

• Develop small group facilitation and participation skills (use the forms)

• Reflect on small group facilitation and participation experiences

• Discuss the 10 facilitation skills

• Discuss the 10 participation skills

Pharm 439

Objectives

• Apply critical thinking to life situations especially as encountered in service learning and small group activities (Use Miniature Guide).

• Practice critical thinking as a qualitative research tool

• Practice critical thinking in the small group process

• Apply critical thinking to pharmacy

Pharmacy 439 FIRST CLASS SESSION

1/6/06• Introduction: Faculty, Agenda• Getting Your SL Site – Jundt

(questions after class)• Overview Course Goals,

Student Responsibilities* and Activities

• What is a Study Circle/What it is Not – Small Group Processes– How will small groups work

(faculty coach, 15 minute pre-post session meetings, etc.)

– Small Group Skills (facilitator and participant)

Closing question:

• Think a moment, then turn and share with one or two people: One time in the coming week when you will participate in a small group and practice your small group skills.

Pharmacy 439 FIRST CLASS SESSION

1/6/06• Objectives: By the end of this

session participants will:

• Explain process of getting SL sites

• List the goals for the class (qualitative research methods, community learning, critical thinking, small group skills).

• List student responsibilities and expected learning for the course