Students investigate how abuse, neglect, and discrimination affect vulnerable populations in their community by acting as health researchers, patient advocates, and future care professionals. They collect and analyze original survey and interview data, study how trauma and chronic stress affect body systems and homeostasis, and use that evidence to answer how healthcare professionals can recognize, prevent, and respond to harm. Through collaboration with healthcare and community partners, they apply ethics, mandated reporting, cultural competence, and communication skills to create practical resources and recommendations for safer, more equitable care.

Students will investigate how abuse, neglect, and discrimination affect vulnerable populations by collecting and analyzing original community data, comparing demographic trends, and evaluating the quality and limitations of their evidence. They will explain how trauma, chronic stress, and adverse experiences disrupt homeostasis and affect the nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, immune, and mental health systems, while applying healthcare ethics, mandated reporting expectations, and culturally responsive patient advocacy. Students will collaborate with peers and community partners to design ethical surveys and interviews, communicate findings through professional visual and oral presentations, and refine evidence-based recommendations using critique and feedback. They will reflect on how their assumptions, empathy, teamwork, and professional identity develop as they propose realistic actions that improve patient safety and health equity.

Students will create a research question proposal, a bias-checked community survey, interview notes or transcripts, physiology explanation visuals, and data displays such as graphs, charts, and demographic comparison tables as they work. By the end, each team will produce a Community Health Research Report, a professional tri-fold display, a formal symposium presentation, a SEE-DO-FOLLOW THROUGH patient advocacy handout, and a local community resource guide for their selected population. Students will also develop evidence-based recommendations for healthcare professionals, families, schools, and community organizations that address safety, reporting, access to care, and health equity. All products should be revised through peer, teacher, and community partner feedback and prepared for public sharing with families, healthcare professionals, and community members.

Begin with a “Community Clues for Safer Care” simulation in which teams rotate through short patient case files, anonymized incident reports, body-system clues, and community data snapshots to identify warning signs of abuse, neglect, discrimination, and barriers to care. Follow with a guest panel or virtual Q&A featuring a nurse, social worker, patient advocate, and school mental health professional who respond to students’ initial findings and introduce mandated reporting, ethics, and trauma-informed care. Then have students complete a brief community walk, photo scan, or resource map of nearby clinics, support agencies, and reporting services to surface real local patterns and questions. Close the launch with a reflection and team protocol where students name assumptions they need to check, select a vulnerable population of interest, and draft first questions for their survey and interviews.

Host a Community Health Research Symposium where teams present tri-fold displays, data visuals, physiology findings, SEE-DO-FOLLOW THROUGH advocacy handouts, and community resource guides to families, school staff, healthcare partners, social workers, and community members. Include a presentation round in which students explain their research question, defend recommendations with survey and interview evidence, and respond to questions from professionals such as hospital staff, counselors, APS/DCFS representatives, and nonprofit partners. Add a gallery walk so guests can review displays, leave written feedback, and discuss how the findings could improve patient safety, mandated reporting awareness, and equitable care for vulnerable populations. Close with a student reflection wall or digital showcase featuring key insights about teamwork, bias awareness, advocacy, and future healthcare goals.