BISLE Students Conduct Cross-border Community Service
For the third year, SEAHEC hosted the Binational Interprofessional Service Learning (BISLE) internship. A collaboration between SEAHEC, the University of Arizona Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH,) and community partners, BISLE brought together 29 students from Arizona and Mexico to work in interprofessional-binational teams to learn what it takes to address community health issues collaboratively. Each team was assigned to work at various sites in and around the sister cities of “Ambos Nogales” – Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora. The goal of Interprofessional Service Learning is for students to work together across disciplines, creating a learning experience that fosters diverse professional perspectives. What’s most unique about BISLE’s approach to training health care providers is that students not only work across disciplines, but across borders. It is a strategy that helps students develop skills and qualities valued in both U.S. and Mexican health systems. This year’s students represented fields including medical, public health, veterinary, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, psychology and education. Participating students from the US represented the University of Arizona (UA) colleges of public health, medicine, pharmacy, and nursing. Students from Mexico represented two of Mexico’s largest private universities, Universidad Vizcaya de las Americas (UVA) and… Continue reading