Course Syllabus

Community Health Work

Faculty

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Course Description

This course addresses the core competencies of the Community Health Worker (CHW), including the CHW role within systems of healthcare and social services. Students demonstrate techniques used to build effective relationships through interpersonal skills, linguistic and cultural competence, and strategies for capacity building. Students explore how community health workers serve to improve health outcomes for individuals and communities by providing outreach, education, support, and advocacy. Additional topics include the work settings, legal and ethical expectations, and career options for community health workers. Recommended prior learning: Introduction to Health Care or Introduction to Human Services.

Essential Objectives

1. Examine the role of the community health worker within systems of healthcare and social services, including potential work settings and career options within the field through assignments such as informational interviews, job shadows, or other career-exploration activities.
2. Discuss the scope of practice for community health workers, including legal and ethical conduct, and professional boundaries.
3. Demonstrate effective interpersonal communication, relationship-building, and empathy skills.
4. Examine cultural and linguistic biases in healthcare, including race, gender, sexual orientation, and the application of culturally and linguistically competent practices.
5. Apply models of health coaching and motivational interviewing to build individual capacity and improve individual health outcomes.
6. Demonstrate knowledge of healthcare and social service systems, including the ability to navigate systems, and coordinate care and services effectively.
7. Apply public health principles and understanding of social determinants of health and health disparities to build community capacity and improve community health outcomes.
8. Develop outreach and advocacy strategies to improve health outcomes for communities and individuals.
9. Demonstrate the ability to conduct individual and community health and needs assessments.
10. Discuss the role of community health workers in research and evaluation activities.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV IT Support page. https://support.ccv.edu/general/computer-recommendations/

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

This course uses one or more textbooks/books/simulations.

Fall 2024 textbook details will be available on 2024-05-20. On that date a link will be available below that will take you to eCampus, CCV's bookstore. The information provided there will be specific to this class. Please see this page for more information regarding the purchase of textbooks/books.

Link to Textbooks for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

• small and large group discussions/ breakout groups
• interactive projects and/or activities
• multimedia presentations and resources
• readings, writing, and inquiry-based research
• professional work-based learning experiences
• interviews
• guest speakers
• service learning

Evaluation Criteria

This course uses a weighted categories system to calculate final grades

Participation in Zoom class: 10%

Projects: 15%

Discussion Posts: 15%

Papers/Chapter reviews: 15%

Reflections: 10%

Final Project: 20%

Quizzes: 15%

Total: 100%

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Participation Expectations

Weekly Readings: All students are required to complete weekly readings and watch the assigned video. Students will come to the live session prepared to discuss them. Students will be randomly selected during the live session to answer questions.

Participation in Live Session Discussions: 10%

The class sessions will be highly interactive. Class sessions will, therefore, be conducted in a manner that assumes all students have completed the assigned readings and/or other assignments prior to the designated session date. All students are expected to be prepared to demonstrate, through informed, targeted, and active class participation, their capacity to integrate course content with thinking about their community and the role of community health workers.

Participation in the live class sessions on Mondays from 6 pm-8 pm is MANDATORY. You will log on via Zoom located on the top left of this page.

Live-session participation will be evaluated based on how well, over the course of the semester, the student's questions, comments, and responses help to move the discussion along and improve understanding of the issues. Your class participation should aim to meet the following criteria:

You participate actively by contributing questions, comments, and/or responses that integrate the topic and themes of discussion avoid generalizations, and practice self-reflection

You attended class at the designated time, and you were not late.

You were considerate of others' opinions and beliefs.

Your webcam is on for the duration of the class (if possible) and your microphone is muted unless you are speaking.

Discussion Forum Posts: 15%

Discussion Forum Posts are an important way to communicate with each other outside of live sessions. Each week, you’ll be asked to participate in your assigned group discussion forum by posting about the week’s assignment. You’ll also be required to interact with one another by responding to at least 2 others in your group. Your responses should meet the criteria outlined in the rubric. Responses need to be thoughtful in nature and relate directly to the topic at hand. Responses such as “I agree!” “This is a good point!” or “That’s great!” will not be accepted and will receive a 0. These discussion forum posts are 15% of your final grade... this adds up!!

Course Project Assignments: Community Profile and Needs Assessment

There will be a variety of assignments for this class. Through each assignment, students are expected to demonstrate a college level of competency in all areas including knowledge of the subject matter, clarity of thought, APA format, and grammar rules. The use of the CCV Writing Center is encouraged and recommended for all students. The link to the writing center is https://libguides.hartness.vsc.edu/writingLinks to an external site..

Assignments are due at the beginning of class on their stated due date (see syllabus).

Attendance and Class Participation

Live-session participation and post-session online contributions will be evaluated based on how well, over the course of the semester, the student's questions, comments, and/or responses help to move the discussion along and improve understanding of the issues in our course. This in turn will depend on how well-prepared students are with the module assignments and how carefully and open-minded students attend to each other's thoughts and concerns during live-session and post-session discussion forums. Class participation is 10% of your final grade.

An unexcused absence or excessive absence/lateness will result in a reduction of points toward the final grade (see below). An absence or lateness greater than 10 minutes must be approved prior to the class session. Three late arrivals to class are the equivalent of one missed class. Life happens, if there is an emergency or a reason for your absence, please speak to your instructor.

1 absence: no impact on the final grade

2 absences: 10% reduction offinalgrade

3 absences: 20% reduction offinalgrade

4 absences: 30% reduction offinalgrade

I understand that life happens and it is not always possible to have your webcam on. Please speak to me if you are not able to use your webcam, otherwise, it is expected that your webcam is on for the duration of the class. This will impact your participation grade. I will be keeping track of who participates in each class session and adding this grade into the grade book weekly.

Student Evaluation

Professional behavior (e.g., in all forms of communication) is paramount in this course. Accordingly, regular and timely attendance at each class is essential and students are expected to complete all readings and be prepared to draw from these and related work/life experiences during class discussions. An assessment of class participation will be incorporated into the student's final grade. Detailed descriptions of assignments will be listed in the syllabus.

Failure to participate professionally in-class sessions will have a negative effect on the student's course grade. Students should notify the instructor by e-mail of any impending absence. If students would like to earn partial credit, they should speak directly to the instructors to complete an assignment related to the missed session.

Missing & Late Work Policy

• Assignments will be deducted 10 points for every day they are late.
• Late work is NOT accepted in the discussion forum. Interacting with classmates is an essential part of online discussions and cannot be made up after the fact. This includes initial discussion posts and replies.
• Extensions will be granted only in extenuating circumstances. If a lengthy medical problem or other emergent personal issue will result in missing weekly discussions and/or assignments, please contact your instructor as soon as possible.
• Students who know that they will not have course access for any given week should make arrangements with their instructor to complete assignments and participation requirements prior to the absence.

Experiential Learning Expectations

Hours: 1-5

Students have several opportunities for experiential learning in this course. There will be several guest speakers for this course who work as community health workers, or who work with, and develop programs for, community health workers. Additionally, there is a class assignment where students will research a community health worker organization and present it to the class in one of our live sessions. There is another assignment where students will interview a community health worker via Zoom or in person.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity