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Institutional collaboration and competition in community-based education
Diane Coucoulas Calleson1, Sarena D Seifer
1Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, CB #7595, Public Health Leadership Program/School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7595, USA. calleson@med.unc.edu
Journal of Interprofessional Care
|December 12, 2003
Summary
Competition for community training sites is increasing among health professions schools, impacting community involvement. Collaboration and diverse partnerships are recommended to address this limited resource.
Area of Science:
- Health Professions Education
- Community-Based Learning
- Interprofessional Collaboration
Background:
- Increased emphasis on community-based education (CBE) in health professions curricula.
- Academic health centers (AHCs) are key institutions for community involvement and training.
- Potential for competition over limited community training sites.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if competition for community-based training sites exists among health professions schools.
- To examine faculty and senior administrators' perspectives on institutional collaboration for CBE.
- To identify factors associated with competition for training sites.
Main Methods:
- Survey of leaders at eight US academic health centers (AHCs).
- Quantitative and qualitative analysis of 91 responses (79% response rate).
- Inclusion of chief executive officers, vice chancellors, deans, and CBE/research/service leads.
Main Results:
- Competition for community training sites was reported as a barrier to community involvement.
- Competition correlated positively with calls for more primary care graduates (0.30, p < 0.01) and negatively with existing collaboration (-0.28, p < 0.05).
- Nursing and public health faculty reported competition with medical schools for traditional training sites.
Conclusions:
- Competition for community training sites is an unintended consequence of expanded CBE.
- Moderate inter-school collaboration exists, but disparities in perceived effectiveness were noted.
- AHCs should form joint committees and explore diverse community organizations as training partners.