title: An interdisciplinary oral history initiative.
abstract: To achieve a significant educational experience that offered effective and lasting change in students' attitudes about expertise and collaboration, the authors designed an interdisciplinary project that purposefully linked students from history of pharmacy and communication studies courses. Over 3 successive semesters, 60 students formed interdisciplinary teams to design, conduct, and transcribe area pharmacists' oral histories. This project challenged students to overcome stereotypes, address anxiety about working with people outside traditional peer groups, and recognize specialized knowledge and skills they offered to the interdisciplinary partnership. Fifty-seven students wrote individual reflective self analyses that examined their own attitudes and experiences prior to, during, and after the project. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the students' accounts provided substantial insight into the value of the interdisciplinary and intergenerational experience as well as students' recognition of disciplinary expertise, both in and outside of their respective majors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wilkes University, PA, USA. James.Culhane@wilkes.edu
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Culhane
authors.forename: Andrea Breemer
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Frantz
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000458:organization & administration; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000523:psychology*