Lisa L Black

“Community-engaged” learning is recognized as an important pedagogy in health professions education, yet assessment of student attitudes related to its impact on social responsibility as part of their professional formation remains a challenge. The Higher Education Service Learning Survey (HESLS) has been used in university settings to gauge student perceptions of civic responsibility associated with general volunteerism in communities. The HESLS was not appropriate for health professions service, but questions from the HESLS guided development of a scale to assess physical therapy students’ perceptions of social responsibility associated with participation in health-related community service. Although preliminary data revealed positive changes, the modified survey’s methodological properties had not been established. The purpose of this study was to explore reliability and criterion validity for use of the modified scale with doctoral students from the professions of Occupational Therapy (OT), Pharmacy and Physical Therapy (PT).

Community-engaged learning has been recognized as an important resource in health professions education.1 Aligned with this philosophy, the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions (SPAHP) has identified “Professional Formation and Critical Self-Reflection” and the Ignatian charism of “Women and Men for and with Others” as a core graduate outcome facilitated by community-engaged learning experiences. Exposure to underserved communities can foster health professionals’ essential skills, but explicit assessment of learning outcomes must be formalized in order for such co-curricular experiences to be valued by faculty and administrators. Several instruments have been identified that effectively assess learning dimensions during “general” service activities;2 however, no standardized instruments exist to assess the effectiveness of participation in community service activities for health professions’ students.3 Research literature indicates that such standardized measures are needed to allow transferability across professions and institutions.