TY - JOUR
T1 - Community action research track
T2 - Community-based participatory research and service-learning experiences for medical students
AU - Gimpel, Nora
AU - Kindratt, Tiffany
AU - Dawson, Alvin
AU - Pagels, Patti
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We would like to thank all of the CART students, community partners, faculty members and staff who contributed to this program. We thank the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School for their continued support. Special thanks to our Founding Director, Dr. Mark DeHaven. CART was initially funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (D56HP05220). Since 2011, the UTSW Department of Family and Community Medicine has supported the program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, The Author(s).
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and service-learning are unique experiential approaches designed to train medical students how to provide individualized patient care from a population perspective. Medical schools in the US are required to provide support for service-learning and community projects. Despite this requirement, few medical schools offer structured service-learning. We developed the Community Action Research Track (CART) to integrate population medicine, health promotion/disease prevention and the social determinants of health into the medical school curriculum through CBPR and service-learning experiences. This article provides an overview of CART and reports the program impact based on students’ participation, preliminary evaluations and accomplishments. CART is an optional 4‑year service-learning experience for medical students interested in community health. The curriculum includes a coordinated longitudinal program of electives, community service-learning and lecture-based instruction. From 2009–2015, 146 CART students participated. Interests in public health (93%), community service (73%), primary care (73%), CBPR (60%) and community medicine (60%) were the top reasons for enrolment. Significant improvements in mean knowledge were found when measuring the principles of CBPR, levels of prevention, determining health literacy and patient communication strategies (all p’s < 0.05). Most students (73%) were satisfied with CART. Projects were disseminated by at least 65 posters and four oral presentations at local, national and international professional meetings. Six manuscripts were published in peer-reviewed journals. CART is an innovative curriculum for training future physicians to be community-responsive physicians. CART can be replicated by other medical schools interested in offering a longitudinal CBPR and service-learning track in an urban metropolitan setting.
AB - Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and service-learning are unique experiential approaches designed to train medical students how to provide individualized patient care from a population perspective. Medical schools in the US are required to provide support for service-learning and community projects. Despite this requirement, few medical schools offer structured service-learning. We developed the Community Action Research Track (CART) to integrate population medicine, health promotion/disease prevention and the social determinants of health into the medical school curriculum through CBPR and service-learning experiences. This article provides an overview of CART and reports the program impact based on students’ participation, preliminary evaluations and accomplishments. CART is an optional 4‑year service-learning experience for medical students interested in community health. The curriculum includes a coordinated longitudinal program of electives, community service-learning and lecture-based instruction. From 2009–2015, 146 CART students participated. Interests in public health (93%), community service (73%), primary care (73%), CBPR (60%) and community medicine (60%) were the top reasons for enrolment. Significant improvements in mean knowledge were found when measuring the principles of CBPR, levels of prevention, determining health literacy and patient communication strategies (all p’s < 0.05). Most students (73%) were satisfied with CART. Projects were disseminated by at least 65 posters and four oral presentations at local, national and international professional meetings. Six manuscripts were published in peer-reviewed journals. CART is an innovative curriculum for training future physicians to be community-responsive physicians. CART can be replicated by other medical schools interested in offering a longitudinal CBPR and service-learning track in an urban metropolitan setting.
KW - Community-based participatory research
KW - Curriculum
KW - Family medicine
KW - Medical education
KW - Medical school
KW - Postgraduate
KW - Service-learning
KW - Underserved
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85056302035&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85056302035&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s40037-017-0397-2
DO - 10.1007/s40037-017-0397-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 29374389
AN - SCOPUS:85056302035
SN - 2212-2761
VL - 7
SP - 139
EP - 143
JO - Perspectives on Medical Education
JF - Perspectives on Medical Education
IS - 2
ER -