Nicole Oblon, MPH, from the School of Public Health, and Chenwei Yan, BA, from the College of Pharmacy, worked with the Center for Health Interprofessional Programs (CHIP) to help solidify the infrastructure for the Health Sciences Care Corners to promote accessibility, quality, and sustainability of their operations. In addition to working to gain a better understanding of the food insecurity issues that are currently present among health professional graduate students, the team created an executive summary on the Care Corners which was used as the basis for the Care Corner Resource webpage found on the BeWell website. This was done to improve the accessibility of the Care Corners to all health professional students. They also organized a joint food drive among the various Care Corners. Donated foods and supplies obtained by the CHIP Care Corner were given to health professional students through two different food distribution events. Lastly, the team analyzed the gradSERU data on food insecurity among health professional graduate students which found that 12% of these students are worried that their food would run out before getting money to buy more.
“This project has shown me how interprofessional collaboration can play into the success of a project through the planning, implementation, and evaluation processes. It has also helped to improve my communication and analytic skills which will be beneficial in my future career. Overall, my favorite part of this project was the amount of positivity and commitment from those organizing the Care Corners because it is creating a lot of momentum for the Care Corners and for improving food insecurity among health professional students,” said Oblon.
“Food insecurity on campus is a topic I care deeply about. I’m glad to be able to work with CHIP on the Care Corner project while learning more about how the issue impacts health professional students by engaging in active conversations. Throughout this internship experience, I was able to execute interprofessional skills in a variety of team-based settings and I’m thankful for the support offered by our collaborators,” said Chenwei.
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