Community perceptions of a rural medical school: a pilot qualitative study

Abstract

BackgroundThis paper explores local community perceptions of a relatively new rural medical school. For the purposes of this paper, community engagement is conceptualized as involvement in planning, delivering, and evaluating the medical program. Although there are several reviews of patient involvement in medical curricula development, this study was designed to pilot an approach to exploring the perspectives of well members of the community in the transition of institutional policy on community engagement to one medical school.MethodsAn advertisement in the local newspaper invited volunteers to participate in a telephone interview about the new medical school. An independent researcher external to the medical school conducted the interviews using a topic guide. Audio recordings were not made, but detailed notes including verbatim statements were recorded. At least two research team members analyzed interview records for emergent themes. Human research ethics approval was obtained.ResultsTwelve interviews were conducted. Participants offered rich imaginings on the role of the school and expectations and opportunities for students. Most participants expressed strong and positive views, especially in addressing long-term health workforce issues. It was considered important that students live, mix, and study in the community. Some participants had very clear ideas about the need of the school to address specified needs, such as indigenous health, obesity, aging, drug and alcohol problems, teenage pregnancy, ethnic diversity, and working with people of low socioeconomic status.ConclusionThis study has initiated a dialogue with potential partners in the community, which can be built upon to shape the medical school’s mission and contribution to the society it serves. The telephone interview approach and thematic analysis yielded valuable insights and is recommended for further studies. Our study was limited by its small study size and the single recruitment source. The community is a rich resource for medical education, but there is a dearth of literature on the perspectives of the community and its role in medical education.

Role of active patient involvement in undergraduate medical education: a systematic review

“…Rationale for involving patients in medical education Several authors referred to government policy mandating patient participation in medical education, namely the UK Department of Health and the UK General Medical Council, 16 23 24 the Australian Medical Council 25 and the WHO 5 as a rationale for their patient involvement initiatives. Besides these political drivers, cited rationales were: to teach students patient-centred and interprofessional care 24 26-28 ; to introduce students to chronic illness care [29][30][31] ; to create a multicultural learning environment; to practise social accountability and an inclusion agenda [32][33][34][35][36][37] ; to make education more engaging, powerful and transformative 38 ; and to empower patients. 39 Patients mentioned that they felt a sense of responsibility to the broader community in shaping the future health workforce 24 32 and improving the healthcare system.…”

What makes or breaks higher education community engagement in the South African rural school context: A multiple-partner perspective

“…In this article, like others (Trahair, 2013;Nestel et al, 2014), we argue that it is no longer enough to view society by means of the traditional role and voice of 'the expert' without engaging nonresearcher partners. The purpose of the article is to compare the retrospective experiences of higher education (HE)-rural school partners 1 involved in community engagement (CE).…”

“…The effort also to engage non-researcher partners in this study enhanced community input in the global citizenship education agenda (Frey and Whitehead, 2009; Trahair, 2013; Nestel et al, 2014). Similar to other researchers (Shultz, 2007; Frey and Whitehead, 2009; Osler, 2011), we view global citizenship as understanding the common humanity and problems of injustice and inequality across national boundaries.…”

Institutional and Faculty Partnerships to Promote Learner Preparedness for Health Professions Education

“…Suggestions for addressing the leaky STEM pipeline require both institutional action and partnership with the local community. Collaboration with the community is important to promote learner success and program completion, as there is much medical school that can learn from community partnerships [20]. As many pipeline programs attract learners from local middle and high schools, in addition to college undergraduates [21], working with school administrators, teachers, and other staff can strengthen the relationships between health professions' schools and the communities which they serve.…”