Patient Listening: Health Communication Needs of Older Immigrants

This report describes findings from focus groups and interviews with elder immigrants who describe in their own words the many challenges they experience navigating the healthcare system. Elders from seven major ethnolinguistic groups living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and San Jose, California participated in the focus groups.

This report is designed to offer practitioners who work with elder immigrants, including health-related professionals and paraprofessionals, senior service providers, and ESL instructors, a better appreciation of the health literacy needs and challenges faced by these elders, so that providers can offer more effective health information and services to this often overlooked group.

Promising Practices for Preparing Health Professions Students

During the 2005-2006 Academic Year, assessment of initiative activities helped to identify factors for successful service-learning implementation. This assessment was conducted through interviews with project coordinators, faculty, and community site staff; review of course syllabi and assignments; and pre- and post-service surveys of students.

The final report describes five promising practices:

• Provide students with adequate pre-service orientation/training.
• Develop reciprocal partnerships between universities and community organizations.
• Facilitate meaningful service for community members and students.
• Integrate academic objectives with service
  Work within a solid institutional infrastructure for service learning.
  

Each of these practices is described in detail and vignettes demonstrate the principles in practice. In addition, the document offers student training materials, profiles of the six institutions of higher education which participated in the initiative that year, and results of surveys completed by health professions students.