Uniting Community and University in the Education of Health Professionals
Wafa Asadian Dr. Angela Towle
Division of Health Care Communication University of British Columbia
Presented at CU Expo 2013
Corner Brook, NL, Canada June 13, 2013
Summary
•Query
• “expertise” as implied in the discourse of community and university relationships
•Conclusion
• “expertise” has academic rendering
• Need for alternative perspectives that recognize community’s experience as
“expertise”
• Definitions
• Issue
• Health care
• Community-based education
• Design
• Question
• Participants
• Method
• Analysis
• Community input and discussion
• Acknowledgement
Table of content
Definitions
• Patient: people with/without health- related condition
• Community: patient, organizations, patient advocates
• Health professions: health-related disciplines
Issue
Health care
• Potential vulnerability
• Social: e.g. Indigenous; refugees; immigrants
• Physical: e.g. (dis)ability, chronic illness, HIV/AIDS
• Psychological e.g. mental health conditions, alcohol/substance abuse
• Improving access by improving education
Issue
Community-based education
• Mechanisms decided by academia
• Deficit view of the community as recipients of services
• Expertise?
Design
Question
Participants Method
Analysis
Question
How does the community apply the terms expert and expertise in the health
professional discourse?
Participants
• 15 program coordinators, executive directors, and CEOs from different community organizations
• Sectors: mental health, disability, chronic disease, women, HIV/AIDs, Sexual health, immigrants and refugees
Method and analysis
• Interviews
• One on one
• Semi-structured: open, some questions and probing around the topic
• Transcribed and analyzed
Community input
“we know very well ..how this disease impacts families and …we would not be experts on the biomedical processes involved in the disease.
We know about it and we learn about it and we try to keep on top of it and we can speak to it but we never replace a health care
professional on those, or researchers.”
Interviewee 11
Community input
“I don’t have the expertise on that side but I know that if you had to teach community based medicine I think you would do it completely differently.”
“For the autism workshop …we found a couple of
psychologists … they really know how to spin a good one day workshop. They have a lot of expertise and they answer questions well and they have people who are
doing clinical research and teaching.”
Interviewee 8
Discussion
Health professional Clinical
Biomedical Research Teaching
Discussion
• Community: education, receiving “expert knowledge” from students
• University: education; ownership, giving to
• Professional, special knowledge
Community input
“the biggest problem that people, including myself, find in interacting with health care professionals is the assumption that they’re the expert and they know what I need. And of course they’re the
expert, that’s why I’m going to see them. But when you live with a chronic illness or a disability you have to become the expert in how it affects you.”
Interviewee 7
Discussion
Alternative perspectives
• Division of Health Care Communication at UBC
• Workshops by community educators (people with disability or chronic illness)
• Professional education held by non-professionals
Alternative perspectives
•Expert by experience
•Learning with rather than about
• Deficit model
• Recognition of assets and resources
• Complementary expertise
Questions for reflection
1) How could we concretely recognize and include the expertise of the community in health
professional education?
2) What theories or guiding principles
accommodate community’s voice as a form of expertise?
3) What are your ideas for the active involvement of the patients and community in health
professional education?
Acknowledgement
Funding agency Vancouver Foundation
Project team Cheryl Hewitt
Dr. William Godolphin Cathy Kline
Scott Graham Anusha Elliot Paul Kerston
Thank you
