title: The Dalhousie Health Mentors Program: introducing students to collaborative patient/client-centered practice.
abstract: The Dalhousie Health Mentors Program builds on a long history of interprofessional health education initiatives by introducing students in health and social care professions to chronic conditions and disabilities, patient/client-centredness, interprofessional learning, and team functioning. This large interprofessional education program (16 participating programs, 650 students) connects interprofessional student teams with Health Mentors, who are adult volunteers with chronic conditions, for a learning experience that extends over one academic year. Students explore their mentor's life story and chronic condition journey, the impact the condition has had on her/his life, and her/his experience with health care in general and interprofessional collaboration in particular. All aspects of the program planning, management, implementation, and evaluation have been interprofessional in nature. Lessons have been learned regarding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing & Health Sciences, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. shelley.doucet@dal.ca
authors.forename: Shelley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Doucet
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.forename: Anne L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Godden-Webster
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lauckner
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nasser
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008611:Mentors; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013336:Students, Health Occupations