Impact of communication campaigns to Blaan indigenous peoples covered by Community Health and Development Program, University of the Philippines Manila

Background@#The Community Health and Development Program (CHDP) is a longstanding program of the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila, School of Health Sciences, Extension Campus in South Cotabato. While its service goes beyond teaching and extends to community development projects benefiting indigenous sectors, yet there has been no comprehensive and systematic evaluation on the program's health communication materials which promote culturally safe and acceptable health care practices that lead to normative changes.@*Objective@#Using descriptive-interpretive qualitative approach, the researcher identified the communication approaches and documented their health knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) to identify any normative changes.@*Methodology@#A total of 24 respondents gave their views on the program's dengue, malnutrition, teenage pregnancy, and family planning campaigns using a closed-ended survey, qualitative KAP analysis, and ethnovideography.@*Results@#Results showed that information dissemination is limited to printed media and interpersonal communication via small groups; contents of health communication campaigns are less understandable; and social mobilization efforts demonstrated low levels of community engagement. Also, communication between health workers and Blaan indigenous peoples is not transactional due to the lack of feedback and involvement in the decision-making process. The respondents' knowledge on health demonstrated low levels of end-user engagement reflective of unsustainable knowledge on modern medicine. Normative changes are only evident on family planning campaigns.@*Conclusion@#The long-term sustainability of health promotion among indigenous peoples may be inhibited due to non-evident normative changes that trigger societal transformation. The paper suggests that a specialized communication strategy intended for Blaan indigenous peoples must be considered and applied in order to react collectively and effectively to address health issues.

Academic resilience among selected students of the School of Health Sciences- Baler, Philippines

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>BACKGROUND</strong>: Since 1976, the School of Health Sciences (SHS) in the Philippines has produced a broad range of health professionals serving depressed and underserved communities. Most researches about the SHS present the impact of its unique community-based ladder-type curriculum and only a few focus on the lived experiences of its students.<br /><br /><strong>OBJECTIVES</strong>: This study described how the lived experiences of SHS students with their community-based curriculum manifested as academic resilience.<br /><br /><strong>METHODOLOGY</strong>: This is an exploratory social research. Data were obtained from key informant and focus group interviews, observations of purposively chosen students, teachers, and alumni in Baler Campus, and document review. Data were analyzed using iterative terms and concepts describing respondents' patterns of activities that establish norms in SHS. Joint displays of these norms were constructed to describe the students' academic resilience.<br /><br /><strong>RESULTS</strong>: Admission in SHS requires students to undergo a stringent, often political recruitment process. While in the degree program, students go through constant financial constraints, demanding academic requirements, and challenging balance of hospital and community work with their personal and academic lives. The interplay between inner strength and external support promoted academic resilience. Studying in the SHS is a transformative learning experience. Students experienced multi-faceted problems requiring them to resiliently meet academic standards and maintain their own well-being. The culture of 'damayan' was an important source of psychosocial support.<br /><br /><strong>CONCLUSION</strong>: The SHS curriculum and culture are most instrumental in promoting academic resilience among its students.</p>

The effects of off–campus classes for students in a school of health sciences / 医学教育

In Japan, community–based education remains uncommon in undergraduate programs for students in schools of health sciences. The purpose of this study was to examine how students are affected by their participation in off–campus classes, which are considered as a main course of community–based education at the School of Health Sciences, Gunma University.<br>1)Reports submitted by students after participating in off–campus classes were broken down into sentences (with care being taken that each sentence made sense). The extracted sentences were carefully consolidated by means of the Kawakita Jiro method (affinity diagram).<br>2)A total of 972 sentences were extracted and were categorized into 3 categories: "enjoy going out to the community," "increased activity through experiences," "awareness of what one wants to be and one's insufficient abilities." Five middle–sized categories and 10 small categories were obtained.<br>3)Experiences in off–campus classes are expected to increase the activity of students and to have synergic effects with on–campus classes.<br>4)Community–based education might be effectively included in undergraduate programs for students in schools of health sciences.