Improving Health Care Delivery for Refugees and African Americans Using Technology-Enhanced Interprofessional Experiential Learning

Abstract

Providing high quality health care to New York’s growing refugee and underserved African American communities requires health care professionals with cultural sensitivity, knowledge of health care disparities, and competence in communicating with non-English speaking individuals. We will develop and implement three novel technology-enhanced interprofessional experiential learning experiences to improve future health care professionals’ ability to deliver quality health care to refugees and underserved African Americans. These educational experiences will improve health care delivery by developing health professions students’ 1) cultural sensitivity and knowledge about health care disparities; 2) ability to communicate using professional interpreters; and 3) understanding of the dynamics of underserved African American communities through community engagement. These experiences align with UB2020 and SUNY Excels goals and partially satisfy health professions programs’ accreditation standards for interprofessional education and cultural sensitivity. The transferability of these educational experiences to other SUNY health professions programs represents tremendous system-wide cost savings.