Insights in Public HealthInterdisciplinary Student Team from University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa inthe HI-EMA Community Care Unit: Identifying Needs in the Pandemic
and Learning Together
Sydney Unciano BS; Angel Lynn Talana BS; Fary Maldonado MPA; Kira Oyama RN, MSN;
Chelsea Emma Apo RN; Kristine Qureshi PhD,RN,CEN,PHNA-BC,FAAN;
Lee Buenconsejo-Lum MD, FAAFP; Rachel Burrage MSW,PhD;
Robin Arndt MSW,LSW; and Tetine Sentell PhD
Insights in Public Health is a monthly solicited column from the public health community and is coordinated by HJH&SW Contributing Editor Tetine L. Sentell
PhD from the Office of Public Health Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and Contributing Editor Michele N. Nakata JD from the Hawai‘i Department of Health.

Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic demands new, interdisciplinary collaborations to respond to the crisis and prepare for a transformed
future.1,2 For students in health and social sciences, this presents
not only high demands and new stressors, but also many learning opportunities.3-6 This article describes the experience of theInterdisciplinary Student Team from the University of Hawai‘iat Mānoa (UH Mānoa) who responded as part of the Hawaiʻi
Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) Community Care
Team in summer 2020.
HI-EMA is the emergency management agency for the state of
Hawaiʻi.7 The HI-EMA Emergency Support Function 8 (ESF-8)
focuses on public health and medical services in the response.
To respond adequately to the breadth and scope of impacts
related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HI-EMA COVID-19
ESF 8 Team was expanded in April 2020. One unit establishedunder ESF-8 was Community Care and Outreach (CCO), which
has a key goal to identify vulnerable populations and articulate
their social needs.
The ESF-8 CCO unit includes: a multidisciplinary team offaculty from UH Mānoa in nursing, medicine, social work andpublic health who are ESF-8 CCO unit members; a community
advisory core representing key perspectives; and data analytics support. A total of 5 students from graduate programs insocial work, public health and nursing volunteered to support
the CCO unit as the Interdisciplinary Student Team during the2020 summer. Specifically, the Interdisciplinary Student Teamparticipants were Fary Maldonado (social work), Kira Oyama(nursing), Angel Lynn Talana (public health), Sydney Unciano(public health) and Chelsea Emma Apo (nursing). It is important
to note that the Interdisciplinary Student Team does not claim
to represent official views of HI-EMA.

These students share their insights, activities, and lessons fromtheir urgent and important work to identify and understand community social needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. They
describe key projects in which they were involved, provide theirperspectives, including synthesized insights into the pandemic
response, and finally consider how interdisciplinary learning
may be contextualized in terms of the needs of communities
in Hawai‘i now and in the future. There is hope that this work
will provide inspiration, guidance, and information for otherinterdisciplinary student collaborations in Hawai‘i and beyond.
Activities
The Interdisciplinary Student Team accomplished 3 primaryactivities in summer 2020.
Organizational Survey
The ESF-8 CCO Unit was tasked with identifying capacity,needs, and threats to members of the community from the
COVID-19 epidemic in Hawai‘i, as well as making recommendations to mitigate the situation. They first assessed the current
capacity, needs, and threats to agencies that provide health andsocial services in support of the state’s vulnerable populations.
Thus, a survey of community-based health and social service
entities was conducted across the state in spring 2020.8,9 An
executive summary was issued followed by a detailed report.9,10
This survey included 26 questions, including agency/entity
locations, services provided, and population served; the impact
of COVID-19 on the population served; and organizational
capacity and needs as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak in
Hawai‘i. Several questions were open-ended, meaning respondents could type a detailed answer in text. The student teamsupported qualitative data analyses of these answers using

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Dedoose (Version 8.0. 2018. Los Angeles, CA: SocioCultural
Research Consultants, LLC),11 a web-based application thatcan support thematic coding.
First, students looked for common themes across responses
and flagged them with the software. Then, after a discussion
to confirm unique themes and remove overlap, they performed
a second round of refined thematic coding and identified illustrative quotes. They then used the software to quantify andcategorize responses by theme. From this information, the students created the report draft, including describing data, giving
perspectives, and finding quotes to illuminate identified themes.
This supported the unit members, the advisory committee, andthe data analysts in completing the final report. In this process,students were actively engaged in teamwork, exchanging experiences, opinions, and perspectives around social services fromthe perspective of the local entities in the time of COVID-19.

and media reports around the impact of COVID-19 on various
groups, including veterans, health care providers, Filipino
communities, airline employees, and those with mental healthconditions. After considering these groups in some detail, they
synthesized needs around topics of interest to them, culminating in 2 op-eds published in Civil Beat, a local nonprofit news
website. One was about the impact of the pandemic on Filipino
communities in the state and was written by 2 students from thesecommunities.12 The second was from the perspective of healthcare providers and was written by 2 students providing care.13
Other Support
The students also learned about the background of emergency
responses, including the HI-EMA structure, attended virtual unit
meetings on Zoom, and helped pilot test a community-focusedsurvey that was administered in August 2020.13

Public Engagement

Students Perspectives

After spending a great deal of time engaging with the qualitative
analyses from the organizational survey, the student team hada strong sense of the diverse needs in Hawaiʻi communities in
response to the health, social, and economic consequences ofthe pandemic, especially from the organizational perspective.
They then looked more closely at the quickly growing literature

In this section, we share the specific learning experiences of ourInterdisciplinary Student Team members (shown in Figure; Dr.
Tetine Sentell of the UH Office of Public Health Studies, whocoordinated the student team engagement in summer 2020, is
also pictured).

Figure. From left to right, top to bottom: Tetine Sentell, Sydney Unciano, Kira Oyama, Chelsea
Emma Apo, Angel Lynn Talana, and Fary Maldonado at a Zoom team meeting celebrating Kira
Oyama’s completion of her public health nursing master’s degree.

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Fary Maldonado
I am a PhD student at the UH Mānoa Myron B. Thompson
School of Social Work with an interest in development ofinterventions for transitioning veterans as well as communitybased research and cross-cultural issues. By participating in the
project to identify community needs and concerns in the timesof the COVID-19 pandemic, I enhanced the scope of my skills
in community work and research. Being part of a project teamallowed me to practice collaboration, challenge myself with newtasks, and experience interdisciplinary cooperation. Apart from
improving my analytical and data collection skills, I succeeded
in integrating my communication skills when discussing thepossible issues related to COVID-19 health concerns with theteam. Also, the contemplation on the scope of needs in Hawai‘iin the face of the pandemic enriched my professional experience.
The project was a good collaborative learning opportunity.
The high values, ethics, and professionalism shown by eachmember of the team helped me grow and continue to develop
my academic skills. The fact that we all come from different
backgrounds and yet managed to engage in a very productive
manner speaks volumes about the knowledge obtained from ourprograms. Faculty offered valuable mentorship and expertise.
I benefited from observing the way tasks were conceived andaccomplished. The knowledge and skills obtained from working on this project will be a valuable contribution to my futureaccomplishments.
Angel Lynn Talana
I am a Master of Public Health (MPH) student at UH Mānoa
specializing in social and behavioral health sciences (SBHS).
During these past few months, I had the opportunity to work on
this project as part of my practicum and understand Hawaiʻi’scommunity needs in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This
experience allowed me to garner valuable public health skills
such as interdisciplinary teamwork, project building, data
analysis, and health advocacy – important skills that I willundoubtedly use in future public health practice. By working
with different disciplines such as nursing and social work, theproject brought forth multiple perspectives of the pandemic
and provided opportunity for meaningful discussions of how
we can better serve our communities.
As an MPH SBHS student, I found it meaningful to examine
the socioeconomic impact of this pandemic on our communities
because understanding the community needs allows for better
advocacy for actions and policies that will protect Hawai‘i’smost vulnerable communities. I partnered with my fellow MPH
colleague Sydney Unciano and we passionately advocated for
Filipino health to be examined since Filipinos have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic.12 It was exciting
to see our perspectives published in Civil Beat.

Public health plays such an important role in our community
health and it has been brought to the forefront because of thispandemic. However, it is also important to know that publichealth efforts will not end when this pandemic subsides andeverything is back to “normal.” Public health will continue toplay an important role in the future and this project has mademe become a better public health professional.
Sydney Unciano
I am also a MPH student specializing in SBHS at UH Mānoa.
As a participant in the HI-EMA interdisciplinary project for mymaster’s practicum project, I had the opportunity to work withstudents from various educational backgrounds. Working in
an interdisciplinary student team with nursing and social work
students introduced me to different care model perspectives.
This experience helped me develop effective communication
skills and taught me how to critically think of different ways
to approach these unprecedented community challenges. Someof the shared responsibilities we had included analyzing qualitative data, creating a formal report of the data analysis, andcompiling a list of informative and helpful resources. Asidefrom collaborating with students from different backgrounds,
one of my favorite parts about this opportunity was being able
to work with my colleague, Angel, and to use my educational
platform to help advocate for Filipino health in the community.12
From this project, I have observed the collaborative and diligent
efforts of my colleagues and leaders from multiple organizations
come together to provide support during this pandemic. I am
appreciative of the support and help of my colleagues during
this project, as well as the mentorship and guidance provided
to direct this project and connect us to various community networks. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it is evident that
this emergency will require the insights of various disciplines
at many different levels. I am optimistic that the continuing
efforts of HI-EMA and other associated organizations will beable to provide support during this time of need.
Kira Oyama
I am a graduate student who recently completed my degree in
population health nursing at UH Mānoa. I am also currently
working as a registered nurse at The Queen’s Medical Centerin Honolulu, in the intensive care unit. As a frontline healthcare
worker, I was provided the opportunity to be part of and witness
the COVID-19 response in the acute care setting. This stirred
up a lot of fear and anxiety among the hospital workers as there
were many concerns about adequate staffing and supplies.13
This sparked my interests in the public health approach to thepandemic, and I was granted the opportunity to work with thisinterdisciplinary group of students on understanding community
needs in Hawai‘i during this trying time.

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Through this experience I developed my data collecting andanalyzing skills and enhanced my communication abilities
through writing and teamwork. I was given the opportunity towork with an amazing group of strong, independent, and passionate leaders in the community who are going to continue
doing great work for the community. This experience increased
my appreciation for the job done in the public health sector aswell as highlighted the incredible challenges that come with it.
In what felt like such a short summer session, we accomplishedso much in sharing information with the public and highlighting
community needs. I look forward to seeing the great work myteammates continue to accomplish particularly as we continue
to deal with the short-term and long-term effects of this healthcare crisis.
Chelsea Emma Apo
I am a graduate student with the UH Mānoa School of Nursing
and Dental Hygiene with a background in acute care nursing anda Bachelor of Science in Public Health. As a student, I foundthat the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 presented a unique situation through which I could apply both my nursing and publichealth backgrounds and begin to work with professionals ofother disciplines in my community. I enjoyed having the opportunity to learn more about the effects of this novel outbreak
and to help inform others of the intricacies of needs, responses,
and public health considerations involved. I have always believed that health is the outcome of a multitude of factors, andit was interesting to see those factors and people working in
the professions that affect those factors come together to fight
COVID-19 in Hawai‘i.
Interdisciplinary Engagement and Student
Learning
The direct participation in the work of an interdisciplinary
team was a valuable experience that provided students with anopportunity to observe how emergencies like COVID-19 aremanaged on a community-level, including engagement with theacademic community.14 Interdisciplinary training remains critical to health training for the academic, health care, and publichealth communities in the time of COVID-19 and beyond.15
Challenges noted in the COVID-19 pandemic are interdisciplinary in nature, and their solutions must be as well. For
instance, population mental health needs have expanded dueto the increased level of uncertainty and anxiety related toisolation. This was a top community organization concern,
including access to behavioral health services. The shift totelemedicine services was also a concern, needing solutions
that include providers, the health care system, funders, software,
hardware, translation services, and instructions on the properuse of telehealth technologies. Basic needs (eg, housing, food),
financial concerns, and unemployment were all significant
concerns, as were health disparities. Some populations weredisproportionately impacted, including Pacific Islander andFilipino populations, elder populations, and those with chronic
conditions. We completed our initial organizational survey inApril and May when the scope and timing of the pandemic were
not clear. Schooling and childcare, while ranked as importantby organizations in the earlier survey, have since emerged aseven more critical to discussions. This area needs multi-sector
solutions to keep students, teachers, parents, and family members
safe and healthy, and keep teachers employed.
The idea of interdisciplinary work and interdisciplinary education are not new but are growing in health care and public health.
Even before this pandemic, a renewed focus on interdisciplinary
education emerged when 6 national health profession education
organizations came together in 2009 and committed to “advancing interprofessional learning experiences and promoting teambased care”16 These 6 organization formed the Interprofessional
Education Collaborative (IPEC) which would later expand toinclude 21 associations of health professional schools in 2016.16
The interdisciplinary student team discussed in this paperaligns to World Health Organization’s definition of interprofessional education, which is “when students from two or more
professions learn about, from, and with each other to enableeffective collaboration and improve health outcomes.”17 The
team furthermore demonstrated aspects of the 4 competencies
that fall under the domain of Interprofessional Collaboration:interpersonal teamwork and team-based practice, interprofessional communication practices, values/ethics for interprofessional practice, and roles and responsibilities for collaborative
practice.18 In its vision for the future, the Interprofessional
Education Collaborative sees “Interprofessional collaborative
practice drives, safe, high-quality, accessible, person-centeredcare and improved population health outcomes.”18 This vision isfurther supported in the literature that these teams can improvehealth care quality, including fewer medical errors, lower costs,
and shorter hospital stays for patients.19
Conclusions
Coordinating a safe response to an international emergency is an
unprecedented task that requires a vast array of support from thecommunity and a rapid response to quickly adapt to changing
policies. This Interdisciplinary Student Team provided valuable
contributions to the urgent COVID-19 response, enhanced theirown knowledge and learning, and also helped build a stronger
future for our community with new networks and understandingof new perspectives from collaborative learning opportunities.

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Authors’ Affiliations:- Office of Public Health Studies, Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work andPublic Health, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI (SU, ALT, TS)- Department of Social Work, Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work and Public
Health, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI (FM, RB, RA)- School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa,Honolulu, HI (KO, CEA, KQ)- John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI (LB)

Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Steven Hankins, ESF-8 Lead during summer 2020, for sharing
his insights with the Interdisciplinary Student Team even when he had somany responsibilities. We also thank the many distinguished members of ourcommunity advisory panel members for their invaluable insights throughout
this process. A special thanks to So Young Choi and Christine Chaplin for
their support of the community needs survey.
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