Meeting the Grand Challenges in a Rural Community

• Main Authors: Fredi Giesler, Robert Rieske, Lacey Wuthrich, Tara Ashley
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Indiana University School of Social Work 2020-09-01
• Series: Advances in Social Work
• Subjects: health professionals; grand challenges; interprofessional education
• Online Access: http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/advancesinsocialwork/article/view/23678
• ISSN: 1527-8565; 2331-4125

Three of the Grand Challenges identified by the social work profession are specifically related to health care: healthy youth development, closing the health care gap, and advancing long and productive lives. Idaho State University (ISU) initiated a collaborative interprofessional health education project (IET) over 30 years ago. This collaborative includes ten health care disciplines across five colleges and provides in-depth assessment and referral to three families annually. This study describes the development of a collaborative, high impact, teaching exemplar, and examines the knowledge, perceptions, and competency of participating students using the framework of the IPEC competencies and the CSWE practice competencies for social work education. Results are derived from a pre-post survey administered during the previous two years. The project includes two groups of students: those that engaged in a hands-on experience with a client and those that only observed clients. The Observation-Only group completed the SPICE-R2 and the IEPS. Students that had direct interaction with clients completed the IEPS (pre-post engagement with clients) as well as the ICCAS. Attitudes, perceptions, and perceived competency improved amongst students participating in the IET course from pre-assessment to post-assessment with moderate to large effects being observed.