This lightening talk will highlight the best ways a community and academic institution can come together to address a health need. In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic halted all health professional clinical experiences, a service learning elective opportunity was created for UNC-Chapel Hill medical students to support front line personnel. As needs across North Carolina grew, student leaders from the School of Medicine partnered with the Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice to form The Carolina COVID-19 Student Service Corps (CSSC). Adapted from the Columbia University’s COVID-19 Student Services organization, students from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, dentistry, public health, and allied health came together to assist their community. In October 2020, the Carolina CSSC expanded to include pre-health, graduate and undergraduate students, as a way to help them achieve service learning and volunteer experiences in health care. Current health professions students served as mentors and teams of students worked together at covid testing sites, contact tracing, vaccine administration, and supplies and kit making.
Over 1500 students have participated in Carolina CSSC since November 2020 and provided over 25,000 hours of service to the Chapel Hill community. Students who served over 75 hours received a Carolina CSSC certificate.
Carolina CSSC allows interprofessional teams of students to engage in a service-learning model that promotes social distancing and health systems capacity building. This session will provide an overview of how we created a centralized organizational structure to mitigate challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, identify volunteer and service-learning activities across our campus to support our community during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ultimately created a place where students could learn from, with, and about each other. This model has now been shared with the North Carolina Area Health Education Center (NC AHEC) and AIHC with the goal of serving others to advance health.
In support of improving patient care, this activity is planned and implemented by The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education Office of Interprofessional Continuing Professional Development (OICPD). The OICPD is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
As a Jointly Accredited Provider, the OICPD is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. The OICPD maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive continuing education credits.
This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credit for learning and change.
Physicians: The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education designates this live activity for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.
Physician Assistants: The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) accepts credit from organizations accredited by the ACCME.
Nurses: Participants will be awarded contact hours of credit for attendance at this workshop.
Nurse Practitioners: The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program (AANPCP) accepts credit from organizations accredited by the ACCME and ANCC.
Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians: This activity is approved for contact hours.
Social Workers: As a Jointly Accredited Organization, the National Center is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. The National Center maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive continuing education credits.
IPCE: This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credits for learning and change
