Background

1. A model for global interprofessional health education of graduate professional students M. Laufer,1 J. Olsen,2 V. Rowthorn,3 L.Glickman,1 E. Calvello,1 P. Danchin,3 S. Britz,4 K. Januario,5 M. Stanford6 University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD Background Methods Using a descriptive design, we collected data supporting the use of a new model for interprofessional student education that involved taking a team of students to Malawi to study and collect research data on global health issue. GHIC has conducted the Malawi project three times (summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012). Students kept individual reflective journals of their immersion experiences and reactions. Follow-up activities included student presentations of findings and individual summative essays. For the summer 2012 Malawi trip, student outcomes on dimensions of cross-cultural adaptability were studied before and after the experience. In addition, faculty conducted a coded review of the 2012 team’s summative essays to determine the impact of the model on student views to this interprofessional global health education experience. A mixed team of faculty members associated with the University of Maryland (UM) Global Health Interprofessional Council (GHIC) created a broad interprofessional model for team-based global health and policy research. The model is an unusual melding of interprofessional education, experiential learning, and global immersion in a low-resourced country designed to address the growing need for interprofessional global health educational opportunities for graduate students. We explored the impact of the model on the interprofessional team of students. My Malawi Journal The Malawi Project 2010-2012 Student Teams Overview: GHIC selected teams of students from the UM Schools of Dentistry, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Social Work to participate in a six-week immersion experience in Malawi wherein students studied and researched a global health topic. Faculty members from the component schools provided students with pre-departure training and education and on-the-ground mentoring in Malawi. Pre-departure Training: Students accessed an extensive pre-departure educational module as part of a multi-session orientation provided by an interprofessional team of faculty. The module included sessions on the subject area and research goals of the project, as well as training in professional ethics, cultural diversity, health care delivery and health policy-making in Malawi, and an interdisciplinary approach to rural health. Student Reflective Work: During both the pre-departure training and while in Malawi, students kept descriptive journals to reflect on their participation in the research project as well as personal impressions of working as part of an interprofessional team. Students wrote summative essays at the end of the summer reflecting on the same themes. The topical focus of the student research differed each summer but had similar themes: Summer 2010: The student team worked with Duke University's Malawi Orphans and Vulnerable Children Evaluation (MOVE) project in the rural Salima District to evaluate the effectiveness of existing service programs that target orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in the region. Based on the interviews, observations, and the MOVE survey instrument, the student team evaluated the availability, awareness, access and utilization ofservices for OVCs and their caregivers and prepared a report with recommendations that was shared with key Malawian stakeholders. Summer 2011: The student team conducted a sub-study of malaria research underway in Malawi under the auspices of the International Center for Excellence in Malaria Research of which UM School of Medicine Professor Miriam Laufer is the Principal Investigator. The goal of the UM students’ sub-study was to better understand what proportion of malaria-like illnesses are evaluated at the Chikhwawa District Hospital as compared to other local formal and informal services. The team surveyed four villages in the catchment area of the Chikhwawa District Hospital and presented their findings to representatives of the villages and local health care system. Summer 2012: The student team used the WHO’s Safe Motherhood Needs Assessment to evaluate interventions related to safe motherhood in the Chikhwawa District. They surveyed health care providers in the district’s two hospitals and 10 of the 11 health centers. The final reports were shared with representatives of these health care facilities and representatives of the Ministry of Health. Results Conclusion • Quantitative Data: Based on repeated measures analysis, there was an overall significant increase in dimensions of cross-cultural adaptability in pre/post-immersion scores for the immersion participants and significant difference between the two groups of students (trip participants and controls). • Qualitative Data: Key themes based on coded review of student essays included: • an understanding of the necessity for interprofessional collaboration to solve complex global health problems; • the need to expand opportunities for interprofessional education; • an understanding of the intimate link between health care and policy and local culture; and • commitment to international health and policy careers. This project supports the GHIC model as a feasible approach to the interprofessional global health education of professional graduate students. 1Faculty member, University of Maryland School of Medicine 2Faculty member, University of Maryland School of Social Work 3Faculty member, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law 4Student, University of Maryland School of Medicine 5Student, University of Maryland School of Social Work 6Student, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy