Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Non-Construction - Mason’s Learning Laboratory for Population and Social Health responds to the HRSA-22-135 is responding to the HRSA Professions Education and Workforce Development need to improve education and training of healthcare professionals. Mason will develop an interprofessional Learning Laboratory for Population & Social Health. This interprofessional learning lab will improve health care for communities and ensure students have improved competencies upon graduation. The learning lab will allow students to design and implement evidence-based projects in the community, while fueling their understanding of population health improvement for communities. The centerpiece will be the launch of a Learning Laboratory for Population and Social Immersion Institute (PSII) involving 84 students in different disciplines. The PSII curriculum will focus on building students' capacity to consider healthcare in the community in a broader context and ensure access to care for marginalized communities in Northern Virginia, especially for communities who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nothing has exposed the unmet health and social needs of communities more clearly than the COVID-19 pandemic. How quickly we seek new, alternative approaches to delivering and accessing healthcare to individuals, families, and communities will be essential. In addition to the direct health consequences of the viral pandemic, there are secondary social impacts of anxiety, fear, economic uncertainty, educational challenges, and social isolation that must be addressed. People and communities that historically have been marginalized, given the longstanding systemic and social inequities in the United States, are likely to suffer the greatest from the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic. These changes have elevated the need to improve how we train our future healthcare workforce, and the multidisciplinary teams in which they function. The COVID-19 pandemic experience can be used to improve curricula in order to address public and social health issues and position our workforce to better address the social determinants of health and emerging health care needs for all. Specifically, we must train the next generation of health and social service students to better understand the role of community partnering, the use of data, and the deployment of novel technologies and approaches across the health and social care continuum. Overarching goals of the Learning Lab will be to: (1)Enhance the curriculum to include core competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, personal qualities, experience, other characteristics) that prepare 21st century health workers and administrators to form effective partnerships with community organizations to address today's most prevalent social health problems; (2)In partnership with community stakeholders identify, design, and disseminate data-driven and evidence-based models of social health care improvement;(3) Offer recommendations to community partners on opportunities, policies, and practices to improve social health and community impact.
