Advancing Service-Learning in Health Professions Education: Maximizing Sustainability, Quality, and Co-Leadership

This dissertation aims to produce new knowledge that can support the advancement of service-learning in health professions education. Its findings are equally appropriate to institutions at varying stages in their relationships with service-learning, whether they are considering implementing service-learning for the first time, are concerned with enhancing the quality of existing service-learning initiatives, or are focused on sustaining already strong service-learning initiatives. This research includes three manuscripts, each of which addresses one of the following overarching goals: (1) To assess the sustainability and long-term impact of service-learning in health professions education, and to identify factors that influence sustainability; (2) To explore how sustained service-learning initiatives in health professions education have fostered the quality and sustainability of service-learning, and to produce strategies for success and lessons learned from their experiences; and (3) To examine how students can provide leadership to advance service-learning in health professions education. As service-learning continues to grow in health professions education, important questions for practice and research are how to sustain service-learning, how to maximize its quality, and how to include all stakeholders – including community partners and students – in work to advance service-learning in our field. This dissertation research aims to contribute to our knowledge about how to achieve these goals. [author]