PHARMACY STUDENT PARTICIPATION IN INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY-BASED TRAINING

We describe a program for training health care students to provide com munity-based services as an interdisciplinary team in rural communitie s. Students participated in a course and a summer practicum. The cours e stressed health care issues in rural areas, community needs assessme nt, program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Student teams al so were given team assignments and team building activities to facilit ate team development. During the summer practicum, student teams lived in rural communities and worked with the communities to solve health care problems as well as provide services within their disciplines. St udents from nursing, pharmacy, health care administration, social work , and medicine participated. In general, students valued the interdisc iplinary experience and believed that interdisciplinary teams are an e ffective method for working with rural communities to solve their heal th care problems.