In Partnership with the NAPCA- the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging-  our focus was the rising rate of anti-Asian American hate crimes in the United States. Our PSA portion of our project details the rising rates of anti-Asian American crime in the united states and the importance of reporting acts of racism and walks viewers through the process of anonymously reporting anti AAPI hate crimes via the NAPCA website. The PSA also shares culturally educated legal resources with the viewers. 

The viral video gives examples of frequently experienced micro aggressions in hopes to educate the general public on how common their use truly is. The video ends with a quick discussion on the mental health impact(s) that micro -aggressions can have and urges viewers to report by providing them both links and QR codes in which they can access the NAPCA anonymous report form. 

• What is the potential public health impact of this project?

As the general public is our audience for both our PSA and our Viral Video our hope is that this media improves general awareness of the current issues facing our AAPI community members. Since 2016, anti-AAPI racism, hate crimes, and acts of terrorism have been steadily on the rise due to racist rhetoric used by the previous administration before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. By bringing awareness to the issues, and the impact of things some may view as minor (such as micro-aggressions) we hope that people become more mindful of their words and actions. Additionally, we hope that reporting rates improve, as the more data is reported, the more evidence community members and organizations have to advocate for themselves and their people. 

• What did you learn about public health practice from your final capstone project?

So much of public health relies on large scale communication. In a way public health officials have to ‘sell’ to the general public new policies, mandates, and scientific discoveries. As such, we learned how important our language use is (including educational language level) and how ‘welcoming’ and easily digestible our information must be. Persuading one to change their daily habits, whether it be their word choice, food choice, etc. is a challenge faced by health practitioners daily. This project gave us an incredible opportunity to refine or large-scale communication skills while touching on the ever important world of social media.

Location: Seattle, WA 

What we did: For our capstone project, we developed and delivered a workshop at the Greenlake Community Center to senior citizens containing information on when and how to call 9-1-1, the signs and symptoms of stroke and cardiac arrest, and how to perform bystander CPR. We also worked with other members of our capstone section to make a video that can be watched when in-person workshops are not available. Our portion of the video focused on information regarding 9-1-1. 

Public health impact:  Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States and stroke is the leading cause of disability. Our project targeted elderly members of the Seattle community as they are at a greater risk of experiencing a stroke or cardiac arrest event as well as more likely to witness one. They are also less likely to perform bystander CPR. In focusing on this group, we can reach the population that would benefit most from this education. The interventions taught in the workshop have the potential to save lives by providing education on what to do in emergency situations before paramedics arrive. 

What we learned: During our capstone experience, we learned how important flexibility is and the value that technology has in being able to provide access to educational materials in any circumstance. There was minimal turnout of senior citizens due to COVID-19, so we developed a video that can be shared with the community virtually. We also learned the impact COVID had on 911 calls. It was surprising to learn that COVID has resulted in decreased calls to 911. We were able to include information on calling 911 and performing bystander CPR during a pandemic in our workshops.  We also learned the importance of adapting workshops to fit the needs of participants. For example, one of the participants was having difficulty practicing performing CPR, so we worked together to come up with a solution that fit her needs. 

 
Location: Seattle, WA

Throughout this quarter, we researched on the topics of cardiac arrest, stroke, calling 911, and CPR. From this background information, we then prepared a presentation and led workshops dedicated towards education and spreading awareness on these topics to seniors in the Seattle area. These in-person workshops included content on when and when not to call 911, what to do in emergencies regarding stroke and cardiac arrest, and most importantly in our opinion, how to perform hands-only CPR using manikins. At the end of the quarter, we worked in groups to collaborate on a final Canva video presentation that briefly explained about cardiac arrest, stroke, and 911. It also included emergency situation walkthroughs and a CPR tutorial. 

 

Through this project, seniors were able to learn prevention education on the topics of cardiac arrest, CPR, 911, and stroke which will hopefully positively impact their health and livelihoods as they are now equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to one day take immediate action if needed. They also learned and practiced the important life skill of how to do CPR which can benefit them in the future because they may be bystanders to an emergency situation and may need to perform CPR. On a larger scale, the seniors will be able to spread more awareness and knowledge on these topics so that more communities are aware of prevention techniques to protect their overall health. The final Canva video will also allow our message and knowledge to reach a larger audience as it is in a virtual format. We hope the video will encourage seniors and anyone who views the video to not hesitate in calling 911 in emergency situations which will hopefully decrease the number of deaths related to cardiac arrest and stroke. 

 

From our capstone project, we learned that public health practice takes a village. By this, we mean our public health work required a lot of collaboration and communication with each other to engage with diverse populations. We learned that listening, trust, and respect are important in community based partnerships in order to build relationships, achieve goals effectively, and ultimately, do equitable public health work. Additionally, we learned how to virtually and in-person communicate our public health knowledge to others such as our public health terminology using different resources and forms of technology. Working in groups, we learned how to lead and be flexible in public health practice because everyone has different skills in terms of communication, public health knowledge, and collaboration. These traits were needed in order to successfully adapt to new and changing situations during COVID times.

What we did: 

Our capstone project focused on the concept of interprofessional collaborative practice, an approach that includes communication and decision making which enables a synergistic influence of grouped knowledge and skills of multiple professions. Our partner, the Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research & Practice (CHSIE), gave us the task of interviewing graduate students from different health science schools within the University of Washington to receive feedback on current inter-professional service learning programs. We assessed the students’ motivations for taking part in the program, their experiences with community outreach projects, as well as any ways to improve the program for both the students and the communities they serve. After each group member interviewed 3 health science graduate students, we used qualitative analysis to categorize their responses that allowed us to identify key themes and responses that we could present to CHSIE. From there, CHSIE was able to address our feedback by taking into consideration potential solutions to improve participation and quality of their service learning programs.

Public Health Impact: 

Interprofessional collaborative practice has been proven to benefit patients, health care providers, and the overall healthcare system in a variety of ways. Studies show that these practices have improved symptom and psychosocial management of patients, staff satisfaction, and overall efficiency and cost reduction. Service learning provides students from health science fields with the opportunity to apply what they learn in the classroom to hands-on experiences by working with patients and interacting with members of their community while also collaborating with students in other fields. This aspect of collaboration in service learning settings is crucial because it prepares students for collaboration in their careers by broadening their perspectives and learning to value each other’s skills and training. 

This experience allowed us to understand the process of conducting a needs based assessment through qualitative research methods to propose changes and improvements to the current interprofessional service learning opportunities at UW. We learned invaluable skills such as how to conduct interviews through active listening and coming up with questions based on interviewee responses. We also learned how to code transcripts and identify key factors and themes to improve CHSIE’s ability to serve the community and students through interprofessional service learning. We can apply this same skill set to a number of other scenarios to better understand and create collaborative programs that can address the needs of the communities we serve in the future as public health practitioners. 

 Key Quotes from Transcribed Interviews: 

“I think the interprofessional opportunities are the most robust and the most exciting of what we offer”

“My main goal is to help people have good interactions with the medical community. A lot of folks that I meet have had really awful experiences with doctors, with medicine, with how they've been treated. So, my goal when I go out and outreach is to try and maybe, just offer them a bottle of water or something but listen to them and help them realize that there are folks out there who, they can ask for help who aren't going to judge them for what they do or say.”

“Its main mission is really to serve and to fill the gaps of what the community needs, which I think that's the most important part of picking a service learning project. It doesn't really make sense to do something that is not serving a need that's there and that makes sense, like you can just pick a random idea and do it like you have to kind of figure out what people want and what's useful for them.”

Brigitte and I worked together on our capstone project to deliver basic CPR, stroke, cardiac arrest, and 911 training to senior citizens and limited English speakers. We collaborated with the Vulnerable Populations Strategic Initiative to teach community centers how to respond in the case of a medical emergency. During our time at the Chinese Service and Information Center, we worked with a translator who spoke Mandarin and English, to help replicate/relay stroke and sudden cardiac arrest and CPR information to Non-english Chinese speakers. Our capstone section worked together to create a video presentation for the Vulnerable Populations Strategic Initiative to show senior citizens the information we delivered on stroke, CPR, and calling  911 remotely.

Public health impact:
The Public Health impact of our capstone project is to increase use of emergency medical services and bystander CPR in the event of a medical emergency amongst  senior citizens and marginalized communities. As public health practitioners, we are able to use our knowledge and apply public health frameworks to  find equitable solutions to neutralize disparities that carry a weight on these populations. By providing senior citizens with basic education about EMS, it can empower these communities to call 911, which can ultimately save the lives of many individuals and loved ones, as it increases hospital arrival times, decreases the prevalence of stroke and leads to better health outcomes. It also empowers them to educate other people about this topic. Furthermore, it mitigates the power imbalances between our social identities (Able-bodied) and theirs (Ableism). We have the ability of providing the same opportunities for vulnerable populations as non-vulnerable populations, giving them a sense of purpose and belonging.

What we learned:
While working on our capstone project, we learned the value of recognizing the intersectionality of both privileged and marginalized social identities within these communities, as it impacts their overall experience within the healthcare system.  We also learned the importance of recognizing and acknowledging one's own lived experiences. This allows us to see people as whole and complex individuals. Furthermore, it has enabled us to view healthcare from a holistic and anti-racist lens as a result of this. While working with CISC, we learned the importance of outreach and adjustments. It was difficult to navigate how to convey material with a translator while simultaneously adjusting our speech patterns so that the translator could remember the information better and translate it.

Potential public health impact of this project: The collection of data from people who experience or witness anti-Asian American hate via reporting forms will help many organizations like NAPCA influence legislation and policy makers. Ultimately, reporting more incidents of anti-Asian American hate will bring more awareness of the issue and hopefully help decrease attacks. 

What we learned:  In making these videos, we learned a lot about the history of NAPCA, NAPCA’s mission, and how to communicate public health information in culturally appropriate and easily understandable ways. We quickly learned about the necessity of making our PSA and viral videos linguistically diverse and available to people of varying ages and technological abilities. This project was an opportunity for us to advocate for the Asian American community helping marginalized communities like the elderly AAPI community by connecting them to resources that give them a voice and potential impact on future policy decisions. 

Capstone Project: DOH

What did we do?
Our capstone project focused on educating elderly populations about fall prevention. We worked with the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) to research the most pertinent aspects of fall prevention and create a curriculum to present to interested elderly populations in the greater Seattle area. We divided our curriculum into four key risk factors for falling: exercise, medication, vision, and home modification. Our sub-group specifically focused on researching and presenting the elements of exercise and medication. After completing our initial research, we moved on to work with the DOH to develop our curriculum, which we formatted into a script for our presentations planned on Zoom, at Yesler community center, at Bitter Lake community center, and at Meadowbrook community center. The script was then transformed into our video script for the animated video version of our fall prevention presentation, to be posted on the DOH website.

Potential Public Health Impact.
Our project focused on preventing falls and minimizing the individual risks of falling by delivering a comprehensive fall prevention curriculum. Fall prevention will further reduce the public health system’s burden on fall aftercare. In terms of the health of our population of concern, we were aiming for a reduction of fall cases among the older adult population and a reduction of adverse events, such as injuries and possibly death, that may follow after the event of a fall. At the individual level, learning about fall prevention methods would hopefully empower older individuals to lead a healthier and more independent lifestyle. 

What did we learn?
During the time we worked as a group creating the DOH fall prevention videos and preparing for the workshops, we learned about falling as an incident that is preventable. There are four elements we see in our daily life that contribute the most to preventing falling, including exercise, home improvement, vision, and medication. Each of these categories overlaps with each other and helps individuals to prevent falls in different ways. Since another core part of our project is to deliver fall prevention workshops to the elders in different sites, we were able to share our researched materials and present them to a diverse set of audiences. Considering the aspects that apply the most to our audience and delivering the workshops in a way that is most acceptable for the elders to follow along are some presentation strategies we learned through this capstone project.      

Location: Seattle, University of Washington

What we did: Our capstone site, the Center for Health Sciences and Interprofessional Education (CHSIE), aimed to better community and patient health through interprofessional collaborative efforts. We specifically conducted interviews with both graduate and undergraduate students in the UW School of Nursing program. Through this process, we asked our interviewees various questions about their experiences regarding service learning and interprofessional service learning, to engage them in a discussion about potential strengths and weaknesses of CHSIE. Throughout the quarter we built interview skills such as identifying our own biases and privilege and worked on listening skills to prepare. After we recorded these interviews, we were tasked with reviewing the audio transcripts and ensuring they were synced. Along with formatting the transcript in an easily readable format, we wrote short memos and pulled out impactful quotes to highlight important messages from the interviewees. After all our classmates had completed this interview process, including clean-up, we were able to start qualitatively coding different interview transcripts from our peers. We specifically coded transcripts involving students from the UW School of Medicine and School of Social Work. After our individual work we were placed into groups of 2-3 and used anonymous transcripts in order to do qualitative coding with each one, placing quotes into categories in order to present our findings back to CHSIE in a clear and concise way.This coding process allowed us to pull quotes from these assigned transcripts and place them into categories of strengths, weaknesses, barriers, etc. During section, we shared our findings of why students couldn’t participate, the challenges they faced, suggested improvements from the interviewees, and current strengths and meaning of the CHSIE program. By communicating these findings to our organization, we were able to help CHSIE members learn about the factors they may not have considered, such as the barrier regarding not knowing where to sign up, or not knowing what to do at the site they signed up for (lack of clarity). 

 

Acquired Background Knowledge → Conducted Interviews → Cleaned up Transcripts → Coded Transcripts → Shared Results with CHSIE

 

The potential public health impact: CHSIE aims to better the health of both individuals and communities by providing access to healthcare or even opportunities to communicate their needs. By conducting these interviews with students of different professions who had already participated in collaborative service learning projects, we were able to grasp a better understanding of how we could better the services provided to both students and vulnerable populations. By bettering services on both ends, the efficiency in communication would increase between service providers and community members. Through our interactions with CHSIE as well as our analysis of the different interviews conducted, we learned the importance of interprofessional communication amongst different professions and schools. Trust is often built upon stability and understanding, so by taking into account all of the improvements, strengths, and weaknesses that were coded throughout different interviews, a mutual trust could be established between patients and providers. This whole experience regarding communication through interviews and communication of results to key stakeholders also strengthened our social skills, which will benefit us in our future careers. Hearing about how interviewees benefitted from interprofessional service learning as it related to their career somehow, also gives an idea of how expansive service learning can be. Public health practice only benefits from being interconnected, by communicating and learning from individuals who have had education different from your own it can open your mind to new perspectives and further benefit patient care.

 

What we learned: Apart from skills discussed earlier, based on conducting qualitative research through this needs assessment, we learned a lot about the interaction between interviewers and interviewees. One trend we observed was that sometimes interviewees tend to highlight the positive aspects of their experiences, rather than elaborate on the negative aspects, which may have to do with comfort. Another trend we observed was a mirroring effect or reciprocation regarding interest. If we had positive energy and were visibly engaged throughout the interview, then our interviewees would tend to share more and be open about their feelings regarding their experiences as well. A major skill we picked up on, was how to use the interviewee’s responses and ask them questions to identify a root cause for what they were explaining. This skill is very valuable as it teaches you how to sort information and look for the main theme of the problem, in a very short time period. Adding on to this, we learned that it is important to let there be silence in the interview if the interviewee doesn’t know something right away. It is unfair to expect the interviewee to answer unfamiliar questions on the top of their head in such little time, so allowing them to have silence or coming back to the question later, will add to the quality of results. We worked on our listening skills and accepting silence a lot within our time in section. An important aspect we learned through the coding process was how a quote is able to fit into more than one category and it is not confined to just one topic. Realizing that a quote can be so much more descriptive, and apply to various aspects, demonstrates how important one piece of information can be. By taking all of these different aspects of interviewing and combining it with the sorting of information across multiple interviews it was able to give us a more holistic view of the question at hand to present our findings back to CHSIE effectively.

 

Media: Some impactful quotes that we pulled from this process included: 

Quotes:

“It’s vastly important to hear about other perspectives and especially how other people are treating the same populations”

“...you need to understand how you can work as a team and better the patient's outcomes, and so I think people who don't take up the opportunity for interprofessional service-learning could be at a disadvantage when they go into the workplace.”

“I think being respectful of a person's culture and language and understanding language barriers and the importance of having good support and interprofessional communication is really important, and so I think that specifically is what stands out to me as my biggest Aha moment from all of my service learning.”

  

Location: Seattle, WA

What we did: 
We worked with the Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research, and Practice (CHSIE) to find reasons why students may or may not participate in interprofessional service learning (IP-SL) and ways to increase participation. Each student was assigned to interview two students from a range of health science majors at the University of Washington (both graduate and undergraduate students) to investigate what impact interprofessional service learning has had on them. During these interviews, we asked a variety of questions such as what the benefits/ challenges of IP-SL, what they learned from IP-SL, and what should be changed to increase participation in IP-SL. We were given an interview guide with specific questions to ask interviewees but were advised to listen attentively and ask them specific follow-up questions relating to their experiences. After conducting these interviews, we were put into groups and randomly assigned 3 transcripts to code. In addition to this, after we finished coding, we had a panel with members of CHSIE, where we discussed our findings of how IP-SL was viewed by students. Through this panel we discussed possible solutions to the problems presented. Through coding we sorted all of the quotes in each transcript into specified categories, which we then use to do “deep dive coding”, which is our final step of the project before we create our summary for CHSIE.

Interprofessional service learning (IP-SL) is a term that is continually reinforced by CHSIE, especially to health science students at the UW. Not only does IP-SL engage students of many different health professions to come together and share different perspectives, it provides a tremendous benefit for everyone using these services. With IP-SL, students learn how to collaborate with a variety of professions which better their interactions with both other professionals and also people they serve in their careers. Populations that these healthcare students will serve in the future will be benefitted by their participation in IP-SL because collaborative skills practiced in IP-SL qualifies them to develop a holistic view of patient health. As students continue to participate in IP-SL, the healthcare system is benefitted as they have students/professionals who know how to communicate effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, students gain hands-on experience and practice in critical service learning through IP-SL opportunities which ultimately improves their capacity to serve populations with compassion in their future careers. In all of the interviews that we conducted and coded students expressed a passion for serving the populations within these programs such as refugees/immigrants, African American children, and the homeless. In addition, the public health impact of doing the IP-SL activities alone serves vulnerable populations in the community, through outreach programs CHSIE has created.

Through conducting these qualitative interviews we learned a very important aspect of communication, especially during a pandemic where there is so much uncertainty revolving around availability and time. Scheduling interviews alone helped us develop communication skills, understanding, and flexibility. In addition, interviewing students from a variety of UW health sciences allowed us to gain experience on giving interviews and being able to actively listen/ ask questions in a short period of time. While conducting qualitative interviews, it is essential to understand the main goal of the interviews and be able to think on your feet in order to come up with relevant questions that encourage your interviewee to elaborate on their experiences. Interviewing health science students also provided us with experience working with stakeholders, creating rapport with community members, and participating in critical service learning. Another thing we learned was how to code transcripts and pick apart main ideas, to then summarize findings. By learning how to code, we are better prepared to not only conduct future needs assessments, but also are able to analyze data more effectively due to prior experience. This in turn helps us develop much needed skills as future public health practitioners who not only need to work with the community, but also alongside other professionals. Through all these new skills learned, we learned how to work with a community partner and provide them with data that is beneficial to their future work.

“I am drawn to interprofessional service learning opportunities because it means I don't have to be an expert in all of the different things I'm interested in”

“I as a social worker, you could be at an agency where you're just working with social workers, but most of the time you're going to be working at an agency or like an organization or a hospital where you're going to have to work with doctors and nurses and I really want to learn how they think so that I can work better with them to serve the client”

"’Interviewer: And what do you think was the most significant impact of your service learning opportunities?’ 

‘Interviewee: yeah just like my own growth and confidence. And just gaining that understanding that it's good not to know everything or like important to just remain curious. I also think, especially in the different health professions, there can be like this pressure that you have to be an expert and you always have to have the right answer. But I think when you get many different minds in a room, it's pretty clear that that's not the case - like everyone has something significant to bring’.”

"I like the fact that for the most part the projects are real. Like you're working on something that actually is impacting the community in real time and it's not a theoretical thought experiment that you're doing in class.”

Public Health Impact: Public safety is included in public health; spreading awareness about the harm Asian Americans face in the U.S. from hate crimes is public health work. It ensures their place in society to feel safe, welcomed and valued. The public health impact of our PSA is to promote equality and protect the Asian community. The mental health of Asian Americans will be impacted by this project by showing our allyship and providing resources to aid in their development through education and employment. 

What We Learned: In completing the project deliverables, we learned the challenges of delivering health information in an engaging and accurate way. Some key strategies we learned for a successful PSA is to always keep the target audience in mind throughout the process of the PSA development and the overall message you want to share. The role that health media plays is monumental in establishing trust with the public and the responsibility of public health practitioners to deliver accurate information. 

Team: Yesenia Garcia, Carl Capili, and Christine Leona Da

Capstone Site: NAPCA

What we did: In partnership with NAPCA- the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging- we were tasked with creating informational videos (PSA and Viral Video) on COVID-19 Safety Information to inform AAPI elders of developing news about the virus and how to protect themselves in a pandemic. Some of the obstacles faced during the creation of this project was reframing complex jargon used to describe medical and non-pharmaceutical terms in a way that was easily understood. Another obstacle was avoiding language that can mislead AAPI elders such as describing the vaccine as “safe” when there have been known cases of potentially harmful side effects. Another challenge was being mindful of how we present this information on the screen. In the case that we avoided overwhelming our target audience by simplifying our graphic design. Lastly, it was important for us to keep up to date with progressing news about COVID-19 especially in terms of the new variants emerging such as Delta and Omicron. Keeping that in mind, it was crucial for us as a team to collaborate and find ways to translate dense information into manageable guidance for this project. 

This pandemic has highlighted many weaknesses within the health care system that have led to the division of many communities due to misinformation being spread and ongoing medical racism. This mistrust between BIPOC communities and the healthcare system has to do with past sufferings and racism within the healthcare system. One example is, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study which recruited African American men who had syphilis, and despite finding a treatment the researchers decided to see how bad the disease would get as it continued to progress. BIPOC communities are constantly having to question motives and ensure that what they are being told is true. The issue with this is that BIPOC communities are already at a higher risk of infection for COVID-19 than their white individual counterparts. 

Intersecting identities play a role that is important to be aware of because older populations are at an increased risk of COVID-19 exposure and transmission. Thus, educating this vulnerable population is essential to help make significant public health change. One way we can improve health outcomes is by informing the older population about the importance of vaccinations, protective measures, and providing general information about COVID-19. The overall public health impact we hope our PSA has is to help inform AAPI elders on what delta variant is and how variants are made, to provide preventative measures, to share information on vaccines and booster shots, as well as relevant resources. The intended purpose of our viral video is to provide the general public with ways to protect our elders from infection using interview responses from health care workers at long-term care facilities. Having an educated and informed elder population will allow them to advocate for their health needs and wants which is important to ensure that they are receiving equitable care. Specifically, we hope that AAPI elders can make informed decisions surrounding their health and everyday lives.  

Some of the most important lessons we took away from this project as a group was honing in our skills of mindfulness, being intentional, and expanding our perspective on different social identities that older AAPI populations hold. For instance, when developing our viral videos we had to be mindful of the diverse social identities and lived experiences of our target audience. So, when we were researching resources to provide at the end of our videos, we also took into consideration about the nutrition of older adults which potentially could have been impacted due to the pandemic. Therefore, we provided hotlines and websites that served elders specifically and brought groceries or meals to their doorsteps like “Meals on Wheels”. Another lesson we learned through our collaboration was being intentional in the way we used specifically older Asian representation in our videos to really strengthen the connection to our target audience and reinforce the image of likeness which therefore helps in hammering the messages in our videos. 

Location: Seattle, WA

Capstone Site: Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research, and Practice

What we did: For our capstone project, we conducted a needs assessment to understand how interprofessional service learning opportunities can be improved to better meet the needs of health sciences students at UW. We conducted 1:1 interviews with students from the School of Pharmacy and School of Physical Therapy to surface student perspectives on facilitators and barriers to participation in service learning opportunities, strengths and weaknesses of current programs, and ideas for future service-learning opportunities. We cleaned and coded interview transcripts, and wrote brief memos to consolidate feedback students provided in interviews. CHSIE plans to use this feedback to inform interprofessional service learning program development and improve student engagement in service learning opportunities.

Public health impact: One of the ten essential public health services is to build and support a diverse and skilled public health workforce. Interprofessional collaboration is relevant to this service because it enables health care professionals, individuals that comprise a large part of the public health workforce, to better communicate and work alongside one another. A more holistic and collaborative approach to patient care has downstream effects such as improved patient outcomes, increased job satisfaction for healthcare professionals, and more cost effective health care systems. Through our work at CHSIE, we hope to increase engagement in interprofessional service learning opportunities offered by UW, and encourage more health sciences students to embody elements of collaborative practice in their work as healthcare professionals. 

What we learned: In conducting our CHSIE project, we definitely learned the values of patience and perseverance. It was very difficult at times to get interviewees and qualitative data to provide to CHSIE, and it took us more time than other groups to obtain that data. Nonetheless, the information we eventually gathered was extremely insightful as to how valuable interprofessional collaboration is in improving the solidity of the healthcare system so that all patients are consistently met with the same quality of care. Working with CHSIE allowed us to grow immensely as equity and social justice public health practitioners, and we will both conduct our future anti-racist equity work with a new humility. It is easy to fall into the healthcare “hierarchy” (i.e. EMTs, paramedics, nurses, doctors) where certain professionals are seen as superior to others, but through interprofessional education and service learning this hierarchy mentality can be demolished, and we can finally begin to acknowledge how every single healthcare professional has a meaningful value and impact on their patients. In building this humble environment of service we will finally be able to improve our healthcare system for the better! 

“See I think of it as, even though we are not finished with the program there's still stuff that a person not in our program can benefit from our knowledge.” - PT Student

“...you need to understand how you can work as a team and better the patient's outcomes, and so I think people who don't take up the opportunity for professional service learning could be at a disadvantage when they go into the workplace.” - PT Student

"[Interprofessional collaboration is] not just that we both show up and we do our separate tasks, but more like is there is there a creative way that we can work together" -PT Student

Location: Seattle, WA

Capstone site: National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA)

What we did: For our capstone project, we were tasked with creating one public service announcement (PSA) video (~1:30-2:00 min) and one viral video (45-60 seconds) on the topic of employment for Asian American and Pacific Islander elders. Our capstone organization is the National Pacific Center on Aging and we were supported by two capstone partners, Boram Kim (Communication and Public Relations Lead, Seattle, WA) and Shei-Lina Bundalian (SCSEP Project Coordinator, Los Angeles, CA). For our PSA video, the purpose of our video was to inform and educate AAPI older adults on NAPCA’s two employment programs to support job readiness: Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) and Senior Environmental Employment Program (SEE). Our 2-minute video was a Zoom recording navigating NAPCA’s website and highlighting both programs’ overview and eligibility criteria. For our viral video, we recorded a 1-minute video using the social media app, “TikTok”, to raise awareness among young adults about employment among AAPI older adults. This included a short conversational dialogue and transitioned into showcasing three personal experiences of AAPI elders who joined NAPCA’s SCSEP program.

Public Health Impact: Achieving equity in the work that we do is an integral aspect of public health. In the context of our project, educating others about the important contributions that AAPI older adults can contribute to the workforce in the United States makes a big difference for this community. To debunk misconceptions about elderly folks being less inclined to work is an important distinction to target and unlearn the ageism that the general population may internalize. Through working with NAPCA this quarter, it became very clear that AAPI older adults who were able to join SCSEP or SEE gained a sense of community, learned worthwhile skills, feel happier and healthier, and are able to share their wealth of knowledge with younger generations. We hope that our capstone projects will continue to advocate for the employment of older adults in the AAPI community and support NAPCA’s missions of serving this population on a national level. 

What we learned: Over the quarter, we learned so much about the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging and all of the programs and services that they provide for Asian American and Pacific Islander elders. Specifically for our group’s topic on employment for older adults, we were able to reshape our internalized biases for elderly folks and their willingness for employment through witnessing first-hand experiences of AAPI elders through NAPCA’s 40 for 40 video series campaign. As a result of this project, not only were we able to strengthen our ability to create lay-friendly health communication through video creation, but we became better equipped with the knowledge to correct others in their misconceptions about employment for older adults and how NAPCA’s employment programs, SCSEP and SEE, can support this endeavor for the older AAPI community.