Community Engagement in Health Care
IND 525.0
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
To sign up for this course, students should add themselves to the waiting list during normal add/drop periods but not during lottery periods. To be officially enrolled in this course you must contact Marcie Naumowicz (Marcie_naumowicz@hms.harvard.edu).
The goal of this Clerkship in Community Engagement is to for the student to be immersed in community-engaged care through experiential learning to help broaden the student'ss understanding of the social determinants of health from theory into practice. This is a 4-week elective with two parallel but coordinated community-engagement activities. 1) An experiential component involving 4 weeks, fulltime immersion in a community organization; 2) A mentored didactic component of 5-10 additional hours of reading, discussion and reflection, under the direction of a Faculty Mentor. Our overall pedagogical approach is to combine deliberate apprenticeship to a community-based organization with critical reflection guided by a faculty mentor. IMMERSION COMPONENT: Students will be assigned to one community-based organization of their choice (depending on availability): The Family Van in Boston or Southcentral Foundation in Alaska (only certain months). The student will be integrated into the work of the assigned organization. The immersion activities will generally include: direct interaction with patients; mentoring by the organization leadership; community outreach; and an introduction to the organization's monitoring evaluation and research efforts. (see site descriptions in Appendix) MENTORED ONLINE CURRICULUM COMPONENT: Students will be assigned a Faculty Mentor who will guide the student's review of the online curriculum. The online curriculum has 12 modules related to the principles and practice of community engagement. The modules include readings, videos and other didactic materials. The first week has required material assigned by the site, the second week has material assigned by the clerkship, thereafter the student picks material, approximately one reading a night, from one of the 12 online modules. The chosen readings should be incorporated into the weekly reflection essay and discussion with the Faculty Mentor. As appropriate, the Faculty Mentor will e-introduce the student to Expert Consultants for further discussion.
Not Available for Cross Registration
