Portfolio of Selected Works [1] Save the Children Sweden, Stockholm exploring the volunteer experience
[2] Social Box Workshop, Versailles creating a solution for temporary living
[3] Prescription for Nutrition, Minneapolis proposing a new kind of nutrition education
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Save the Children Sweden Save the Children Sweden is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable children in Sweden. The organization asked students to improve its volunteer experience so that best practices could be developed and shared, to ultimately improve the results for its children. Through one-on-one interviews and surveys, we gained key insights into the volunteer experience as well as the relationship which exists between volunteer members and headquarter staff. Using this information, we tested key assumptions regarding usability and delivered an app-based solution.
There is a tension between too much and the need for documentation.
Not all volunteers use a computer or feel comfortable with social media.
The purpose of documentation is ill-defined; what should be documented is contested.
Chapters differ from one another in activity type, funding need, level of autonomy, etc.
There is untimely, limited feedback on current local work, which provides little benefit from existing methods of information sharing.
Volunteers have limited opportunity to connect with other volunteers, and prioritize time spent with children over admin-work.
In short, Save the Children Sweden needs a solution that allows effective two-way communication between volunteer members and headquarter staff, as well as between local chapters. The goal: design a platform that is user friendly, provides headquarters with pertinent information, without taking too much volunteer time away from directly serving children.
77%
of respondents agree or strongly agree that they want to hear about other volunteers’ experiences digitally.
54%
of respondents agree or strongly agree that they want to share their experiences digitally.
Volunteers may be more inclined to provide feedback if it was possible to do so on a mobile device; they could document information on the go, versus tracking down a computer, which many volunteers felt like additional effort they may try to avoid.
More motivated volunteers leads to greater engagement.
The app provides flexibility to access whenever, wherever.
It allows for standardization of information sharing.
Question prompts encourage reflection and growth.
The app reminds volunteers of a collective purpose.
Information is stored digitally and automatically.
Impact Headquarter staff of Save the Children Sweden were unaware of the amount of time spent towards administrative tasks and the frustration around delayed or non-existent feedback. After the presentations, they asked about the estimated timeframe and cost to implement our prototype, which we estimated to be six months and cost about 350,000 SEK, or roughly 40,000 USD. They are currently furthering research as it’s difficult to put a time limit on innovation - it is a process that continually goes through revision and refinement.
Social Box Workshop The Social Box Workshop was designed to introduce students to sustainability in architecture through focusing on the current social theme of temporary housing. Over the course of five days, students were asked to design a small shelter which provides decent living conditions while minimally impacting the environment, for the Occupy Movement demonstrations. Requirements included consideration of materials, transportability, onsite organization, and cost efficiency. The guiding question: how do we bring a fixed element, such as a kitchen, into an urban space? Drawing inspiration from transient street vendors and the compactness of an Allan Wexler design, we devised a solution that is mobile, efficient and compact.
During transportation, bands wrap around and secure the separate units onto one trailer. These same bands, once stood upright, transform into support for a plastic roof raised over cooks’ and diners’ heads.
Basic food preparation and food consumption needs are separated into four units: heating, cooling, washing, and storing. Each unit contains a hinged and unfolding table in addition to appliances and other features appropriate for its function.
The heating and cooling units have an oven, stove top, flat grill, refrigerator, storage for energy supply, a cutting board, and bins for glass and plastic recycling.
The washing and storing units have a sink, which can use recycled rain water collected by the plastic roofs, a cutting board, bins for compost, paper recycling, other trash, and storage for shelf food and eight chairs.
Impact While a short and theoretical project, the chance to work through something by physically and visually building models was challenging. Additionally, working with international students was very valuable - I overcame language barriers, was exposed to new design approaches and precedents, all of which enabled me to broaden my horizons and push my boundaries.
Prescription for Nutrition Common Grounds is a university sponsored volunteer program which brings together graduate students across disciplines to explore current community issues and provide professional consultation services to local organizations. Choosing to focus on the national epidemic of chronic disease, our team assessed and researched the role of nutrition in education at the University of Minnesota Medical School and across the US. Through one-on-one interviews, focus groups, surveys, and literary research, we developed recommendations designed to increase students’ confidence in discussing nutrition with patients, so that they offer tangible and specific recommendations to improve patient health and effectively communicate the proven link between food and chronic disease.
Some estimates attribute 70% of US health costs to obesity associated chronic disease.
Cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes caused 50% of Minnesotan deaths in 2010.
The greatest opportunity to improve health and reduce premature deaths lies in influencing and altering personal behavior and lifestyles.
Access to healthy food in the US is a problem. The Department of Agriculture defines Food Deserts as “parts of the country vapid of fresh vegetables, fruit, and other healthful whole foods… largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmer’s markets, and healthy food providers.”
Additionally, these are usually found in impoverished areas where there is both low income and low vehicle access. While many “mobile market” programs exist in several major cities, successfully increasing the amount of fresh produce being bought, the core of the issue remains.
Beyond what are often a relatively small increase in access to affordable fresh and healthy food, limited payment options, and lack of marketing, a basic understanding of the relationship between food and personal health is missing.
Contrary to some beliefs, patients depend on and look up to physicians as a source of nutritional advice. This advice proves to be most effective coming from doctors who follow their own advice, serving as role models, and who provide specific recommendations. Yet...
27% of US medical schools teach the NIH recommended 25 hours of nutrition.
86% of physicians feel they were inadequately trained in nutritional counseling.
At the University of Minnesota Medical School, all med students take the Science of Medical Practice course, which “integrates basic biochemical and genetic principles with cell function, nutrition, human development, and human disease.” However, of 118 lectures, little of “nutrition” content is related to diet or practical food-related decision making.
9%
19%
were of lectures were labeled as nutrition.
of lectures missed a nutrition connection.
“Low-salt diets kept being mentioned but what is that? What do you tell patients to eat? We’re told to recommend this to patients but have no idea how to explain it!” “When I asked what a “low-cholesterol diet” is, the only response I got was to probably cut out egg yolks.” “I kept expecting them to bring up food in the diabetes lectures. It was almost laughable that they didn’t!” - direct quotes from students
96%
of students strongly agreed or agreed that “Medical schools should include workshops around discussing nutrition with patients.”
S: Small bits inserted into biology A: If residents had adequate daily U: Motivational interviewing classes and I’ve studied it a bit on U: Help students consider nutrition fruit intake, they were 89% less my own, but nothing formal. likely to report a lack of for every patient, assess patients None except what I learned about antioxidant competency and 84% for malnutrition, have a plan for digestion and metabolism in less likely to report deficits in management undergraduate biochemistry daily hydration proficiencies. With U: Make physicians who can speak classes. adequate daily intake of non-dark competently about healthy S: Yes. I had 4 nutrition classes as green vegetables such as carrots behaviors (role model) by part of my graduate degree and a and squash, they were 89% less teaching them how to engage in little exposure during undergrad likely to report deficits in healthy behaviors through biochemistry coursework. U: Help students talk about nutrition competencies for osteoporosis S: Some in my undergraduate prevention and 76% less likely to at farmer’s market health biochemistry class. report deficits in daily hydration screenings/patients in general S: No formal training beyond education. U: Change physician conversations component in Exercise A: Medical students who have been from medication talk alone to Biochemistry undergrad course. through our program are 2 ½ to 3 wellness/preventive health (what S: Personal interest so have done times as likely to understand these else can patient do besides take 111 student reponses 12 university responses 28 medical articles research to educate myself. concepts and talk about them with medication to manage conditions) S: I have not had any previous their patients. U: Prepare physicians to supply training in nutrition, outside of information to patients they need A: Overnutrition diseases represent With a lot of input, we devised three recommendations: looking up nutrition information/ to be healthier people - best way to the leading cause of mortality, healthy eating tips out of my own leading to 1 in 3 deaths in teach others is to teach students interest. developed countries. Most of these U: Help students view nutritional S: I took a community college class diseases are obesity associated and issues as part of a whole-person 10+ years ago, remember none of attributable to type 2 diabetes integrated approach it. mellitus and coronary heart disU: Moderate amount of disconnect S: Nothing other than significant ease. Novel solutions are needed between pre-clinical and clinical discussion during Physiology, to improve dietary nutrition and nutrition education Biochem, and Advanced Biochem U: Funding a challenge if nutrition stem the epidemic of diet-related S: No formal nutrition classes disease. not prioritized by admin
Recommendation 1: Introduce a Nutrition Coordinator who takes charge of integrating nutrition content into all relevant courses. Additionally, in order to help students empathize with their patients, require several activities such as living a prescribed diet, keeping a food diary, monitoring blood glucose, and completing short research assignments on nutritional supplements or foods.
Recommendation 2: Include nutrition and wellness as part of experience-based learning initiatives. Physicians contribute insight about what is seen in the hospital to lecture topics taught by faculty; they can also speak to nutrition. Additionally, just as there are special workshops designed to go in-depth about neurology and pediatrics, nutrition and wellness should also be included.
Recommendation 3: Cooperate with other health sciences schools on the UMN campus to build on existing interprofessional collaborations, and promote medical nutrition. Furthermore, bring community members into educational cooking workshops, run by students, similar to those taught in the Food Matters course, where connections between prepared meals and health are explicitly made.
Impact The work we presented to the educational steering committee at the University of Minnesota Medical School had a lasting impact; over a year later, nutritional content is being rewritten for at least one module, exploring how nutrition can be a social determinant of health. Additionally, work is being done to introduce a service learning project, expected to launch in the 2019 school year, which combines first year medical students and community families in a cooking class that teaches practical nutrition.