By Dawn Brazell
Public Relations

There's academic theory, and then there's what happens in real life.

That's one lesson participants in MUSC's Presidential Scholars Program found out first-hand as they took what they are learning in their studies and applied it to community health projects.

Scholars discuss their findings.

The Scholars presented their research at a ceremony April 12, which this year included airing commercials from each group that summarized the mission of their various projects.

MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., praised the interprofessional teamwork that is the keystone of the program enabling it to have such a powerful influence on MUSC and the community.

Dr. Ray Greenberg congratulates this year's scholars on their community projects during a Presidential Scholars Day ceremony.

"You can argue that it has changed the university," he said of the program's impact.

Amy Blue, Ph.D., Presidential Scholars Program director and assistant provost of education, said she's been with the program for three years and continues to be amazed at what the groups accomplish in such a short amount of time. When they start the year, they are given a topic and have from September to the beginning of April to get their project done, which really isn't much time, she said.

"This is in addition to their regular academic activities. You have different personalities. You have different professional perspectives. They look at existing community needs and often assess them and work with a community liaison. It's really impressive what they do."

This year, 41 MUSC students and seven Charleston School of Law students participated. The advisory group came up with broad topic areas, with the five groups assigned to an area that fit into this year's theme: "Improving the Community's Health." The groups examined five health issues in the local community:

Cultural contexts: Expanding knowledge about diabetes among the local Hispanic community. The group developed easy-to-read colorful brochures in Spanish to help the Hispanic community better understand how to deal with a chronic condition.

Environmental issues: Improving knowledge of proper medication disposal among pharmacists in Charleston County. This group targeted how to raise awareness among pharmacists to assist in the "crush don't flush" campaign to protect the quality of drinking water.

Maternal/Child health: Establishing community connections to enrich the lives of pregnant teens. Working with the Florence Crittenton Home, this group established community partnerships to better aid the pregnant girls, age 10 to 21, that this home assists.

Mental Health/Substance Abuse: Evaluating student knowledge of mental health/substance abuse services in Charleston. This group evaluated the MUSC students' awareness about the available resources to help people deal with mental health and substance abuse issues and will be sharing survey results to help those resources be better utilized.

Preventive Health: Health literacy focusing on reading nutrition labels. Working with the Trident Literacy Association, this group developed a study module aimed at improving reading skills and teaching the basic skills of reading a nutrition food label given research that shows low literacy levels are associated with poorer health outcomes.

Blue said a new part of the program this year that was a success was having all the groups join to do a health fair as a community service project at the Carolina Youth Development Center. Preventive health and health career booths were set up for the event.

The Scholars are selected students from MUSC's six colleges who undergo a competitive application process to participate in the two-semester program. They are joined by selected faculty scholars representative of each college.
"For the students, they really do get a better understanding of each other's professions and a better appreciation for interprofessional collaboration," she said. "They also get a better idea of community health needs and the complexities of engaging in community health related work for their projects."

Because of the experience, several students have gravitated toward more public aspects of health care or even changed career paths, she said. They realize they can create change. Blue said she receives regular inquiries about the program, which serves as a national model for interprofessional education in what has become a powerful community outreach tool.

"It's a wonderful way for students to learn about community health needs because that's not emphasized a lot in their curriculum. It benefits the institution because our students are out in the community, and they are wonderful ambassadors. The work they do is with all sorts of projects. It may seem on the one hand small in scope, but they also can have a large impact."

For information on Presidential Scholars, visit http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/pres_scholars/index.html.