Several schools have developed training experiences to encourage students to increase social responsibility and improve community service attitudes. Although service learning is being integrated into college and university classrooms at an ever-increasing pace, it is not clear whether these experiences reinforce pre-existing interests or can motivate previously uninterested students to consider careers in healthcare.
Research has found that participation in volunteer service positively corresponds to promoting cultural competency and continuous community service involvement. The findings of the current study were consistent with previous research on service learning, although this study explored two additional specific outcomes: social responsibility and cultural competency.
The purpose of the quantitative causal-comparative study was to identify differences in attitudes toward service learning, cultural competence, and social responsibility of undergraduate health professions students at a southeastern university in Tennessee, before and after they participated in an outside classroom service-learning activity. Pre and post-surveys were administered to participants assessing their attitudes toward community service, using the Community Service Attitudes Scale, social responsibility development, using the Scale of Service Learning Involvement, and cultural competence, using the Cultural Competence Awareness model.
Academic centers that advocate and adopt service-learning policies as an integral part of higher education in health promotion and disease prevention provide health professionals with opportunities for reflection on the broader social, economic, and political contexts of health (Sabo et al., 2015).
The collaboration between communities and academic centers can improve community-based health education programs, through the use of health fairs, while meeting the goals of health promotion and disease prevention in underserved communities (Kamau-Small, Joyce, Bermingham, Roberts, & Robbins, 2015.).
Service-learning programs are a response to the all-encompassing social determinants and health education needs of underserved community populations providing both an educational benefit to the public and a service learning component to students (Lichtenstein et al., 2017). When the educational system begins to embed the social responsibility concept within the health care system, the collaboration becomes a focused health agenda to address needs, such as cultural competency and social determinants of health, by teaching awareness, compassion, and social responsibility to the public and students (Lichtenstein et al., 2017).
Researchers revealed that partnerships between academic centers and underserved communities can successfully address the health care and health education needs of these communities (Phillips et al., 2015; Sabo et al., 2015), while at the same time addressing the cultural competency and social responsibility needs of health professions students.
Researchers indicated that a well-structured, mentored experience that involved medical students and underserved populations had a positive impact on medical students’ attitudes and interest in servicing underserved populations, while at the same time providing access to health care and health education for underserved communities (LaVeist & Pierre, 2014). Rural communities have many different characteristics from urban communities regarding proximity access to health facilities and health promotion programs (Phillips, Street, & Haesler, 2015).
The need for rural underserved communities to increase health literacy and have sustainable programs is dependent upon the outreach of knowledgeable health professionals (Phillips et al., 2015; Sabo et al., 2015). Increased knowledge and health outcomes in underserved communities is dependent upon partnerships and collaborations that can address the knowledge deficiency in underserved communities while providing best practices and prevention methods to promote healthy lifestyles (Phillips et al., 2015).
Service learning is being integrated into college and university classrooms at an ever-increasing pace; however, it is not clear whether these experiences reinforce pre-existing interest or have the ability to motivate previously uninterested students to consider careers in underserved communities (Sabo et al., 2015).
Community service prepares students for adulthood and citizenship by sensitizing them to community needs and showing them how their time and talents can make a difference in their community (Warren & Smalley, 2014). The problem was past studies have not addressed the development of social responsibility, awareness of cultural competence, and changes in attitudes towards service learning in health professions students (Sabo et al., 2015; Warren & Smalley, 2014).
Current research on community service to date lacked exploration of how attitudes about community service and other dispositional characteristics, such as social responsibility and cultural competence that are indicative of volunteering and helping are impacted in those who volunteer (Washington-Brown & Ritchie, 2014). Research exists on the impact of service learning on students within particular professional programs, or variables that impact student decisions regarding lifelong community service, cultural competency, and social responsibility.
The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to identify differences, if any existed, in the attitudes towards community service, cultural competence, and social responsibility development of undergraduate health professions students at a southeastern university in Tennessee, before and after they participated in a service learning activity in an underserved community in comparison to undergraduate health professions students that did not participate in the service learning activity. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the recruitment of study participants, thereby limiting the number of participants, it was not possible to have a comparison group of undergraduate health professionals who did not participate in the service learning activity for the current research. Students’ attitudes toward community service, social responsibility development, and cultural competence were compared between pre-and post-intervention.
The benefits of this study included measuring change in students’ attitudes of participation in service-learning programs, awareness of social responsibility, and cultural competence skills. This could ultimately benefit communities, through health education provision within communities and greater collaboration between universities to assist in problem-solving and solution/capacity building in communities, which provides students with learning sites and communities with education, resources, and tools to helps residents. Sustainable models for community-based educational programs have been recommended as one resolution to reduce the problem of health disparities in the United States (Santos et al., 2017).
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