UF President Machen encourages Interdisciplinary Family Health students

University of Florida health-care students enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Family Health service learning course were encouraged by UF President Bernie Machen, Ph.D., D.D.S., to use the experience as a first step toward a long-term professional commitment to helping the less fortunate.

“I think UF will not have done its job if we don’t inspire you in some way to give something back after you leave,” Machen told about 400 students in the Public Health and Health Professions/Nursing/Pharmacy Complex auditorium. “This course is a way to expose you to the possibilities to give back.”

Interdisciplinary Family Health is a yearlong course that teaches medical, dental, health professions and pharmacy students the value of teamwork by placing them in small groups to help needy Gainesville families.

The course is an example of service learning, a growing trend in health-care education that combines hands-on experience for students with help for community residents, said Richard Davidson, M.D., M.P.H., an alumni distinguished professor of medicine and director of the Interdisciplinary Family Health program. Davidson introduced Machen and acted as master of ceremonies for the event.

A strong advocate of service learning programs, Machen recounted how his life was changed by a 1972 stint as a pediatric dental resident in a migrant worker camp in Iowa, where he witnessed the lives of underprivileged children firsthand. He said it took another 32 years of striving before he was satisfied with his own level of community involvement.

Machen, who helped establish a community-based service learning program in his previous position as president of the University of Utah, told the audience that he hopes to promote greater outreach by UF students and faculty to the Gainesville community, particularly East Gainesville.