Sunscreen for Refugees
| Responder | Yousef Salem |
| Project Title | Sunscreen for Refugees |
| Start Date | 8/17/22 |
| End Date | 2/28/23 |
| Project Location: City | San Antonio |
| Project Location: County | Bexar |
| Other Student Leaders | Elizabeth Long, Medical Taha Syed, Dental |
| Community Partner Organization | Center for Refugee Services |
| CSL Mentor – Name | John Browning |
| Other Mentors | Elena Jimenez-Gutierrez, Rebekah Salt |
| Is this project interprofessional? | Yes |
| Professions Represented | Dental,Medicine |
| Project Category | Education |
| Project Activities | Focus Groups/Surveys/Interviews,Health Education,Health Screenings |
| Is this project conducted as part of a student organization? | No |
| Student Organization Name | N/A |
| Is this project done as part of an academic course (required OR elective)? | No |
| Course Name | N/A |
| Community Partner Name | Margaret Costatino |
| Community Partner Job Title | Executive Director |
| Total Number of Students on Project Team | 13 |
| Number of Community Beneficiaries | 35 |
| Total Number of Other Faculty/Staff | 5 |
| Number of Other Community Volunteers | 4 |
| Mentor Hours | 12 |
| Student Leader Hours | 94 |
| Total Number of Student Hours | 250 |
| Semester Service Hours | 200 |
| What type of funding did you use to conduct this project? | CSL Mini or Midi grant from the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics |
| Mini/Midi Grant Amount Awarded | $500 |
| Did you do this project as part of Federal Work Study from the Office for Financial Aid? | No |
| Did you receive In-Kind Donations for this project? | No |
| Amount of In-Kind Donation $ | N/A |
| CSL Abstract | Abstract.docx |
| CSL Poster | SunscreenForRefugeesPoster2023-2.pdf |
| Challenges | Challenges: Receiving full buy-in from clinic leadership and addressing concerns that sunscreen may exacerbate vitamin D deficiency in a population that is already known to have a propensity for it. Extensively researching your intervention beforehand with peer-reviewed evidence was extremely helpful to make our argument. |
| Lessons Learned | Talk to anybody who might be interested! We initially had planned to do a very hands off intervention by only giving patient’s sunscreen and materials because we were worried about disrupting clinic flow. But in talking with many stakeholders and patients, we found that there was potential to involve nursing students, allowing them to practice patient education and teach-back while simultaneously making our intervention more engaging! This would never have happened without asking for insight from anyone who would offer it. |
| Success Story | Our goal was to provide sun protection and skin cancer education to refugees. We are now able to provide full size sunscreen bottles to refugee patients as well as teach them to use it, including having them teach back the when and how of using it. |
| Conferences Where You Presented Project | Yousef Salem, Elizabeth Long, Taha Syed, Fayha Khan, Daniel Zhong, Marcella Snyder, Angelica Fernandez, Cristina Del Angel, Elena Martinez, Sarita Turcotte, John Browning MD. Sunscreen Education for San Antonio’s Refugees. Paper presented at: 14th Annual Community Service Learning Conference; February 4, 2023; San Antonio, TX. |
| Publications of your Project | N/A |