This series highlights exceptional projects from the 2024 Collaborative Practice Showcase. Collaborative Practice I (CPI) is an interprofessional service learning experience for health professions and social work students. CPI student teams work with community partners throughout the school year.
Community Partner: Church of the Covenant
Professions represented: genetic counseling, nursing and speech-language pathology
Project title: Using storytelling to assess spiritual needs
The Collaborative Practice I final project “Using storytelling to assess spiritual needs” assisted University Circle’s Church of the Covenant with developing interview questions and strategies to help assess the needs of their community.
"While we all are heading in different pathways professionally, we all recognized a correlation between the interviews we had with members of the Church of the Covenant, and the discussions and interviews that we will have (and already are having) with patients and their families in our respected clinical and healthcare settings,” said Katie Zettel, a speech-language pathology student.
Zettel said she enjoyed working with fellow students, all motivated to be changemakers in their respective professional pathways.
“Continuous communication among healthcare providers is necessary to use best care practices that confront bias, make ethical decisions, implement psychological safety and allow us to be practical, emotionally intelligent healthcare providers,” she added.
Church members’ stories were interpreted and compiled into artwork by a church staff member to capture intergenerational viewpoints and stories. The art gallery is open during church hours.