Toward interprofessional service-learning and social accountability in health: One South African University’s process-oriented-participatory journey

The Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, seeks to transform its health professions curricula in order to achieve equity in health outcomes. Integral to this are interprofessional education service-learning initiatives attendant to socially accountable objectives. We describe one such initiative, the Zanempilo Mobile Health Education Platform (MHEP), which engages interprofessional healthcare students and faculty members in delivering health services to underserved communities. The Zanempilo MHEP consists of a converted 13-ton truck as a mobile clinic from where student-run services are provided. We illustrate the intentional process by which we, an interprofessional health science working group, created socially accountable learning goals appropriate to the above platform. We developed, employed, and refined a process-oriented-participatory approach rooted in theories of social constructivism and social network development that included the following phases: orientation, analysis, synthesis, production, and dissemination. Out of this approach emerged several socially accountable learning goals for students and faculty members working on the Zanempilo MHEP. These goals incorporated five educational domains, namely knowledge, attitudes, skills, intentions, and relationships. We anticipate using these goals to identify future curricular objectives and competencies.