Grantee: University of Washington Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education
Timeframe: April 2020 – March 2021 | Amount: $22,000
The University of Washington Health Sciences (UWHS) Mobile Health and Outreach Van is an interprofessional community engagement project that addresses critical gaps in health access, and partners with student and local organizations to provide basic preventive health and street medicine services for people experiencing homelessness, and housing insecurity. The project also provides interprofessional learning opportunities for health sciences students to engage with professionals and students from other disciplines, and to connect what they are learning in the classroom to a community setting.
The goals of the UW Health Sciences Mobile Health Van project are: • To use the mobility of the health van to address geographic barriers that prevents vulnerable populations from accessing healthcare, as identified by needs assessments and our community partners. • To provide health science students real-world, experiential opportunities to provide care directly in communities and both address and learn about barriers to healthcare access, social determinants of health, and population health. • Provide opportunities for health sciences students to work in interprofessional teams, and to bolster the skills needed for effective collaboration.
Amenities such as an ADA ramp, sink, storage, and refrigeration would greatly expand the services that we are able to provide and create a safe, clean environment for our patients.
Initially, the HS Mobile Health Van will not function as a service entity on its own, but will rather extend the services of existing student-led organizations:
- University District Street Medicine – health education, screening, and referral
- Community Health Advancement Program – dental and foot care clinics at local shelters
- One Health Clinic – medical and veterinary services
- UW School of Dentistry – screening and dental care outreach events
- UTEST – rapid HIV testing for underserved communities
- Student Health Initiative for Access (SHIFA) – health screening tests like blood glucose, vision, BMI, blood pressure, HIV testing
UW anticipates relationships with local clinical community partners will provide additional opportunities for the mobile clinic. UW is currently collecting quantitative data through the REDCap data capture program and repository as part of the program evaluation efforts (e.g., number of patients served, types of services provided, students and professions who participate). UW will develop a masters in public health practicum opportunity, through which graduate students can develop a more robust evaluation plan, and provide a repository of data for future evaluations. The close ties of CHSIE with the service learning unit of the medical school and the Deans of the health science schools provide a clear pathway to identify students for this role.
About Our Grantee
University of Washington Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education
The proposed project (Service Expansion of the Interprofessional Student- and Community Partner-Organized University of Washington Health Sciences Mobile Health Van) is administered and coordinated by the University of Washington (UW) Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice (CHSIE). CHSIE was first funded in 1997 by internal UW initiatives to develop new models of clinical education that would collaboratively engage students across disciplines, and is sustained by external federal and foundation grant funding and the UW Board of Health Sciences Deans. The Center aims to break down professional and organizational silos, and to coordinate and implement research and educational opportunities focused on developing a workforce of collaborative health care professionals. A core component of the Center’s work is to create innovative interprofessional education (IPE) curriculum and programming that is available to faculty, staff, and students from the six Health Sciences schools (Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and Social Work). IPE programming is developed across three key work areas: classroom and simulation curriculum, clinical training, and interprofessional community engagement/service learning.
