IPECP Community Engagement

Below are descriptions of interprofessional community engagement opportunities for Emory students. The opportunities include involvement in student organizations, service-learning, and experiential learning opportunities. The Office of IPECP will continue to update this list as new opportunities are developed and/or brought to our attention.

emory working in the community on the farm worker project

Initiated in 2019 by an interprofessional group of Emory students, this program brings together heath professional students from Emory with students from Mercer University College of Pharmacy, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, and law and social work students from Georgia State University. AISH is a multi-institutional service-learning program that provides graduate students across various medical and health professions the opportunity to engage directly with high-need, high-cost (HNHC) medical patients. Nationwide, HNHC patients make up only 5% of the patient population, but they account for 50% of healthcare costs.

In Atlanta, student hotspotters aid in addressing socioeconomic and environmental determinants of health for HNHC patients within the Grady Health System (Grady), the city's largest safety-net healthcare system. AISH's goal is to advance interprofessional education among health professionals while simultaneously improving patient care and outcomes for both patients and Grady. AISH combines students from more than eight academic disciplines from five Atlanta-area institutions, providing unparalleled opportunities to train the next generation of interprofessional leaders. Office of IPECP Co-Directors, Drs. Jodie Guest and Beth Ann Swan, serve as faculty sponsors for AISH. You can learn more about AISH You can learn more about AISH here.

The Emory Farmworker Project (EFP) is the Emory University School of Medicine's Physician Assistant Program's hallmark service-learning program. The EFP is a collaboration with the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and the Rollins School of Public Health. Each June and October, the EFP provides free health care to more than 2,000 farmworkers and their families, a population that plays a key role in Georgia's billion-dollar fruit and vegetable industry but often lacks access to even basic medical care. Its pop-up field clinics meet a critical public health need while giving clinical teams experience in treating a wide range of conditions – everything from health screenings for patients who have never received clinical care to women in labor or workers with serious acute illness. You can learn more about the EFP here.

Led by Dr. Jodie Guest, Rollins Public Health Students spent many hours working on COVID-19 outbreaks across Georgia during the summer of 2020. The team provided free COVID-19 testing to those in communities hardest hit by the epidemic. In addition, they worked with community partners in interprofessional teams to develop education materials to promote PPE use and hygiene. The students in this groups have received invaluable hands-on experience serving vulnerable communities in Georgia while contributing meaningfully to their applied practice experiences. The Outbreak Response Team (ORT) is poised and ready to respond if called upon to help curb outbreaks in other regions of the state. The team is coordinating with Georgia Health Districts to determine the need for active response across the state. For more information, please visit the Emory ORT website.

Initiated in 2023 by the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (NHWSON), FACES in Georgia Perinatal Health fosters the leadership potential of Emory students who are passionate about improving maternal health outcomes in Georgia. Five-to-eight students from schools across Emory University engage in advocacy, policy development, educational, and entrepreneurial service activities that demonstrate the impact and responsibility that different professions have on healthcare. Students from Emory's three health professional schools, the Goizueta Business School, the Emory School of Law, and Emory College are eligible to apply for the program, which will run from September 2024 through April 2025. You can find more information about this program and apply here.

The Farm Worker Family Health Program is an interprofessional, in-country, cultural immersion service-learning experience. Coordinated by the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (NHWSON), each summer select undergraduate and graduate students from the NHWSON, the University of Georgia School of Pharmacy, the Georgia State and Brenau University Departments of Physical Therapy, and the Clayton State and Central Georgia Tech College Departments of Dental Hygiene spend two weeks delivering vital health health to farm workers and their children in farming communities in southwest Georgia. The schools partner with The Ellenton Clinic to serve farm workers and their families in Colquitt, Cook, Brooks, and Tift counties. You can learn more about the Farm Worker Family Health Program here.

Health Students Taking Action Together, Inc. is a non-profit, member organization run by health professional students in Georgia. HealthSTAT seeks to make being active in the health community a professional habit. By helping students and health professionals see advocacy as a continuum that links education and service to policy, the organization helps facilitate the development of a new cohort of health leaders. For more information, visit the HealthSTAT website.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School is an interprofessional educational community that works to advance healthcare improvement and patient safety competencies in the next generation of health professionals. The Emory chapter gives students the skills to become change agents in health care improvement by taking free online courses in quality improvement and by networking with peers and experts from a variety of healthcare disciplines including medicine, public health, nursing, allied health, and business. You can learn more about the IHI Open School here.

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is an organization that brings together students from around the world to address issues such as equal access to medicines, transparency in drug research, and fair pricing all of which ultimately impact patient health and well-being. The UAEM Emory Graduate Chapter unites students from various fields including medicine, nursing, public health, law, business, theology, and biological and biomedical sciences. The UAEM Emory Graduate Chapter organizes discussions and seminars featuring speakers like Dr. Raymond Schinazi, Dr. Dennis Liotta, Dr. Liza Vertinsky, Dr. Bednarzyc, and Dr. Gichoya. Additionally, UAEM Emory Graduate Chapter hosts events such as the UAEM conference and movie screenings. The UAEM Emory Graduate Chapter is also involved in journal clubs, research projects, and poster presentations.