Idaho State University
Department of Physician Assistant Studies
Service Learning Program
Description: The Service Learning (SL) program at ISU PA program is intended to provide opportunities for first-year PA students to both serve their community and learn and reinforce medical knowledge and skills. The SL program is different than a traditional course, in that it spans all three semesters of the didactic year. Students may choose to pursue their SL hours throughout the year, in small increments, or do 1-2 large projects. The SL program is also set up to allow student choice in type of population served, type of activity and whether to participate individually, in small groups or as part of a large group. It is a self-directed learning activity. The learning methods in the SL program are intended to supplement traditional lecture and enhance learning of clinical skills, cultural competence and knowledge of community resources for underserved populations.
Module Coordinator: Cindy Bunde is the Service Learning Coordinator. Other faculty often help in supervision of students at SL activities.
Location: Aspects of the SL Program, such as preparation and reflection, are taught in the classroom, with content available via Moodle. SL activities will occur at various sites throughout the Southeast and Southwest Idaho communities.
Overarching Goals:
The Service Learning Program helps students achieve educational standards, such as ARC-PA Standards B1.09; B3.01, B3.02a-h; B4.01a,b,c; B6.01a,b,f; and B6.02a,b,c,d; B7.01 and B7.04e.
Service Learning helps PA students achieve clinical competencies, as well as the ISU PA Program’s Outcome Objectives, necessary to become a physician assistant.
Service Learning strengthens the students’, Program’s and University’s relationships with the communities and helps provide valuable services to the community.
Service Learning is consistent with the PA Program’s mission statement (http://www.isu.edu/paprog/about_mission.shtml), educational philosophy (http://www.isu.edu/paprog/about_philosophy.shtml) and the Kasiska College of Health Professions’ (KCHP) and Idaho State University’s missions (http://www.isu.edu/kchp/mission.shtml and http://www.isu.edu/president/statement.shtml, respectively).
Objectives:
There are many complex objectives related to Service Learning. By nature, part of the objective is service to our community and part is student learning. Some general objectives are listed below – site-specific learning/service objectives may be detailed in Moodle site listings.
By the end of the didactic year, through SL activities, the PA student will:
- apply knowledge, skills and attitudes encompassed within PAS 601, 603, 652 and other module objectives
- apply his or her clinical skills, such as documentation, history taking and exam
- apply his or her medical knowledge, including disease states and pharmacology
- demonstrate preparedness for clinical year in both clinical skills and interpersonal interaction
- document his or her supervised clinical practice experience(s) in a long-term care setting(s)
- identify methods of community collaboration
- describe ways to identify community resources
- provide needed services to community partners, especially those who serve underserved populations
Requirements for Service Learning Program: Requirements will be outlined in the syllabus provided to incoming didactic year students. Typically, students must satisfactorily participate in in-class and out-of-classroom preparation and reflection activities and complete a specified number of hours in service at pre-approved Service Learning sites.
Approved Sites:
There are a number of pre-approved sites/opportunities (in Moodle course) for students to obtain SL hours. These have been selected for learning potential and population served, as well as having supervision issues considered. I am open to students seeking out other opportunities for their SL hours, but I will need to pre-approve those activities. There are many opportunities for service learning in both the Boise-area and Pocatello/Idaho Falls-area, but due to community differences, these opportunities will not be identical. There are ample opportunities at both sites.
Ideally, the service learning activity/site should meet three criteria:
1) Health-related
2) Service
3) Underserved population.
