Using Photovoice With Undergraduate Interprofessional Health Sciences Students to Facilitate Understanding of and Dialogue About Health Disparities Within Communities

Abstract

Overview. It is important that future health care providers be made aware of the health disparities affecting their communities and the populations they will serve. Photovoice is an example of an interactive teaching and research tool used to depict health disparities through the use of images within a community. Purpose. The purpose of the study was to assess the views of undergraduate interprofessional health sciences students after their use of photovoice to understand health disparities. Method. The photovoice project was implemented as part of a learning unit on health disparities within an undergraduate Health Literacy and Culture Care course with 12 class sections over 2 years. Purposive sampling was used to survey the students who completed the course during this 2-year period in order to assess how the assignment increased their understanding of and ability to address health disparities within the communities that they live and serve. Results. A majority of the participants (N = 48) strongly agreed/agreed that the photovoice assignment increased their understanding of health disparities, health disparities within their community, factors contributing to these health disparities, and ways to address health disparities. In addition, most participants strongly agreed/agreed that the photovoice assignment was a valuable learning activity related to health disparities and should continue to be used as an assignment. Although beyond the scope of the assignment, 26% of the respondents indicated that they took action within their community to address the health disparity identified. Conclusion. This study demonstrates that photovoice can be used as a pedagogical tool to extend student learning about health disparities beyond the classroom into the community.