Assignment Details

Each student will work with their Community Preceptor to find an adult (18 or older) related to their site who is willing to engage with a BTG intern for sharing their story. (For sites with minors, interns will connect with staff members or parents).
Medium open for students to create any kind of piece they want from this experience, e.g., audio, video, painting, drawing, narrative, etc., on their experience talking and/or working with community members.
- With artistic pieces, students must include a brief description of their project (few sentences/one paragraph)
Respect for patient privacy is an intrinsic part of the practice of narrative medicine and storytelling. Student should read the 2023 BTG Authorization and Release Form prior to presenting it to the interviewee. Students must obtain a signed BTG Authorization & Release form from the person(s) interviewed
ALL STORYTELLING PROJECTS MUST BE SUBMITTED WITH A SIGNED RELEASE FORM AND BE DEIDENTIFIED (omitting the name of the person interviewed)
Students must submit the work to Student Coordinators by July 17. Student Coordinators will coordinate a piece that highlights a representative mix of the work. The highlighted piece will be shared with students on the final Wednesday session July 26 and may be highlighted at the BTG Symposium in October.

Suggested Topics/Prompts for Interviewing

What do you want people who don’t know about your community to learn about it?
What’s great about your community (what do you love about it)?
Will you share a favorite memory of living in this community?
What are the resources and strengths of your community?
How have the events of the past 3 years affected your community?
How has covid-19 affected your community?
What does cardiovascular health mean to you?
- [use answer from above question to ask next question]
- What resources in your community promote heart health/stress?
How have the events of the last 3 years affected you?

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE/SMOKING CESSATION/ ORAL HEALTH

Due July 17th submit to your student coordinators

Mentors:

Oral Health: Kendra Domotor (domotor@upenn.edu) and Elizabeth Shalaby (eshalaby@upenn.edu)

Tobacco Free / Smoking Cessation: Ryan Coffman, MPH, CHES, CTTS-M Tobacco Policy and Control

Program Manager, Philadelphia Department of Public Health (submit questions for Ryan HERE)

Resources: www.BridgingtheGaps.info > Student Login> password: btgchip > Resources

Goal: For Students to incorporate into their projects when appropriate (see below OBJECTIVES)

Oral Health Supplies are available for distribution at your site, complete the order form on the website in student materials.

During the core sessions, you will hear from presenters about Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), Smoking Cessation (SC) and Tobacco Free Policy (TFP), and Oral Health Disease (OH) as it relates to the community. Given the prevalence of CVD, SC/TFP, OH in the communities you are serving BTG focuses on prevention/health promotion, when appropriate. Using the mentors and resources provided consider how best to incorporate the below objectives into your work at the site (ALSO SEE RESOURCES CVD, SC/TFP, OH).

AS FUTURE HEALTH PROFESSIONALS’ RESOURCES CREATED AND SHARED SHOULD BE DOUBLE CHECKED FOR MISINFORMATION- confirm all sources of information are reliable and up to date.

A group of the student coordinators will be tasked with coordinating an effort for BTG around CVD, SC/TFP, OH and you will be asked to share with them your CVD, SC/TFP, OH prevention/promotion work by July 17th.

OBJECTIVES

Cardiovascular Disease

To raise awareness through health education.

To focus on topics related to cardiovascular disease prevention: healthy eating, exercise, stroke prevention, and smoking cessation.

To connect people to resources.

Oral Health

To raise awareness of oral health’s relationship to overall health.

To discuss topics related to oral health disease prevention.

To connect people to oral health supplies and dental care resources.

Smoking Cessation and Tobacco Free Policy

To raise awareness through health education.

To support sites in creating smoke free environments.

To support individuals in their effort to quit smoking.

GETTING STARTED

Review the resources.

Speak to the Community Preceptor (CP) at the site about the BTG programmatic themes (CVD, OH & Smoking Cessation) and discuss what, if any, intervention would be appropriate.

Connect with the Dental Alumni Mentors.

Smoking Cessation Initiative

Help support a smoke free environment

Does the site have a documented policy on smoking?

If no, help the site think about developing a smoke free policy and connect them to resources at Smoke Free Philly. If yes, how can you improve the function or support the effort.

Offer to do an assessment of the site or the area surrounding the site to see if there are ways to better support a smoke free environment.

Create a resource(s) the site can use.

Help support individuals

Raise awareness of the dangers of smoking, industry advertising, target markets, etc.

Provide resources for those wanting to quit (Quitline, tips on how to develop a quit plan, smoke-free apps, info on nicotine replacement therapy, support, etc.).

Create a resource(s) the individual can use or/and share.

SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT

If your site is hosting an event, awareness campaign, resources, etc. tag @BTGUpdates so we can share the post or email Bridget McCormick (bmccor@pennmedicine.upenn.edu)

Expectation: taken from BTG Student Agreement

Use of Social Media: You should be mindful that school policies, such as those related to professionalism and privacy, apply to both your offline and online activities. Students are expected to act responsibly in their use of social media and to remain protective of client and community site information. In addition, students who reference BTG in their postings should ensure that it is clear that views expressed are their own, and not those of the program.

WEEKLY JOURNALS/ FINAL PAPER

Journal Submission:

Your Program Director will provide details about when and who to submit your weekly journals to.

Guidelines for Journal Writing:

It is not designed as a log of daily activities.

It is an opportunity to reflect on: personal experiences, work activities, problems, observations, questions, professional learning goals, agency strengths and weaknesses, program strengths and weaknesses, and ideas for future interventions and projects.

The journals are not to be included or used in any other public domain (e.g. Blog, Facebook, etc.) to respect confidentiality of colleagues and community.

The expected length is one to two pages.

Occasionally a UP BTG faculty member may request that you address specific issues in your journals.

Final Report Guidelines:

Please review and reflect on your internship experience in a 4-6 page paper. Feel free to reference any of your journal entries that you think are particularly important.

Please reflect on what you have learned this summer about social injustice and inequities and the impact of that on:

a) your experience at your site

b) your own personal growth as you have gone through the experiences of BTG

c) the way you see your work in the future.

Please also comment on:

Work related to Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, including smoking cessation.

Include information that you learned about the community perspective of cardiovascular health.

Work related to oral health.

Include information that you learned about the community perspective of oral health.

What did you learn from your interaction around the storytelling project?

How did the BTG experience affect your perspective on your career?

OTHER optional discussion points:

How has your understanding of community or community health been affected by your experience/knowledge gained in BTG? If so, in what ways?

How has your perception of inter-professional teamwork been affected by your experience with BTG, if at all?

Were there projects or activities in which you participated/organized/initiated that challenged you in new ways? If so, could you describe these and tell us about why they challenged you?

Were there any activities that you led or in which you participated that made a particularly deep impression (for example, activities related to cardiovascular health, oral health)?

How did your perception or understanding of your site change over the summer?

Do any Wednesday sessions stand out for you and if so, in what ways?

NOTE: Your final paper will be shared and excerpts may be used in funding materials. If an excerpt is selected you will be notified and permission requested.

TEAM EXPERIENCE SUMMARY/ SYMPOSIUM: Professional Presentation Materials (see Symposium section in student details)

CENTRAL TEXT: Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge, your Program Director will provide you with your book.

EVALUATIONS AND QUESTIONNAIRES: completion of weekly and end of the program evaluations and questionnaires is a program requirement. Links will be sent via redcap.