Service-Learning Theory

Andrea Richardson, PharmD

PGY-1 Pharmacy Resident

Holy Cross Hospital

Service-learning incorporates meaningful community service and guided reflection to provide a structure that benefits both the student learning experience and the community. Service-learning falls on the middle of the spectrum in which either end puts more emphasis on the service provided (volunteerism or community service) or on the student’s hands-on experience (field education or internships). Maintaining this balance between service and learning is very important when evaluating the design of a course. This is a particularly important concept for students in pharmacy school that are actively learning to dedicate themselves to a profession of service.

The criteria for service-learning includes academic connection, community voice and quality service, reciprocity and collaboration, reflection, and assessment. Academic connection incorporates the service into the curriculum and identifies and articulates the goals of the service-learning within the goals of the course. Community voice and quality service ensure that the students are adequately prepared to provide necessary services to the community and that the service fulfills community needs. Reciprocity and collaboration suggest that everyone involved in the program functions as both a teacher and a student to achieve their shared vision. Reflection allows the student the opportunity to connect their service experiences with the knowledge from their didactic courses and to thoughtfully process their personal experiences. Assessment requires a method for measuring the effectiveness of the program for achieving the pre-defined learning and service goals¹. Assuring that a pharmacy program utilizes this type of learning appropriately requires proper planning with clear pre-defined learning outcomes, service to communities in need, consistent opportunities for sincere student reflection, and timely feedback from faculty².

Service-learning can be further categorized into different types, including pure, discipline-based, problem-based, capstone, service internships, and undergraduate community-based action research. Pure service-learning courses typically focus on sending students into communities to serve without narrowing down to a specific discipline. Discipline-based service-learning has the expectation that students are present in the community and reflect regularly with the content in the course. Problem-based service learning has students work to understand a problem in the community and develop a solution. Capstone courses are usually available during a student’s final year of school, and they provide the opportunity for students to combine their acquired knowledge with relevant community service prior to entering post-graduation practice. Service internships tend to require more hours and for students to develop a beneficial body of work for the site. Undergraduate community-based action research involves students working closely with faculty to become skilled with research concepts to be an advocate for the community. Each of these types could definitely play an important role when it comes to educating pharmacy school students and providing service to communities in need of our expertise.

        The benefits of implementing a service-learning program within the pharmacy school curriculum can have a lasting impact on student pharmacists as they prepare to go into practice after graduation. Students that have completed such programs reported improved confidence with communication and applying knowledge to specific patient scenarios. These are key skills to have as a pharmacist, along with an increased awareness of health disparity issues. Incorporating service-learning into their education provides more opportunities to participate in direct and indirect patient interaction and interprofessional collaboration. Some examples of these programs include health fairs, health screenings and education, student-run pharmacies, mission trips, IPPE or APPE rotations, and elective and required courses³.

        Service-learning supports a mutually beneficial relationship between pharmacy students and underserved communities, and its many types can be applied to help students achieve their learning goals. The structure of this type of program is very important for being successful and meaningful for all parties, so the role of the teacher is crucial for developing and maintaining it. As service-learning continues to be utilized in pharmacy programs, it will be interesting to see the impact that will have on future generations of pharmacists.

References:

1.   Kasinath, H. (2013). Service Learning: Concept, Theory, and Practice. International Journal of Education and Psychological Research, 2(2), 1–7.

2.   Dicks M, Mitchell T. Service or Disservice? Ensuring Pharmacy Students Provide Authentic Service-Learning. Am J Pharm Educ. 2019 Sep;83(7):7465. doi: 10.5688/ajpe7465.

3.   Alessa D. Gonzales, Kiersi S. Harmon, Norman E. Fenn, Perceptions of service learning in pharmacy education: A systematic review, Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, Volume 12, Issue 9, 2020, 1150-1161, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2020.04.005.