Integrating caring, scholarship, and community engagement in mexico

Abstract

To provide students with an unforgettable introduction to community-engaged scholarship, students partnered with the local health promoter of a marginalized community in northeastern Mexico to plan and conduct diabetes education classes with individualized follow-up. The author describes how students and faculty, inspired by this vision, integrated service, scholarship, and community engagement. The experience strengthened the health promoter's role, empowered patients with type 2 diabetes to improve self-care management, and provided students the opportunity to measure the impact of their interventions. © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.