title: Interprofessional and Interdisciplinary Approach from Undergraduate Health and Pre-Medical Students in Children's Health Educational Initiative.
abstract: The importance of interprofessional training in healthcare to improve quality of care and health outcomes has been increasingly recognized. This pilot study used an interprofessional and interdisciplinary team of undergraduate health and pre-health students to establish a unique community partnership with a local elementary school in developing and implementing a nutrition/exercise educational intervention. Our results suggest that children as young as 8 years old are capable of learning new information related to the benefits of particular food groups, are capable of retaining this knowledge for 6 months, and that an intervention program as short as one hour every few months stand to make significant impact on children's knowledge about proper nutrition and healthy lifestyles. Our results suggest the potential benefits of further expanding the short-term intervention into a longer-term community-based curriculum targeting a younger age group previously or currently practiced.. Furthermore, this pilot study suggests that undergraduate health and pre-health students can form an interprofessional and collaborative team to take an active role in the dissemination of nutrition knowledge in the community.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Sophie R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Siyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Patrice S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yenor
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Regina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Jianghong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: Community Intervention; Health Education; Interdisciplinary; Interprofessional