Implementing and managing community-based education and service learning in undergraduate health sciences programmes: Students’ perspectives

Abstract

ResearchGlobally, more than a billion people never consult a healthcare worker in their lives. Inequitable and ineffective healthcare systems are weakened by a scarcity and maldistribution of the healthcare workforce.[1] Together with other stakeholders, health professional schools can play a key role in reducing inequality and improving health equity. The Global Independent Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century (2010) calls for transforming institutional and educational approaches to better meet changing health systems needs.[2] Furthermore, in late 2010, the Global Consensus for Social Accountability of Medical Schools (GCSA) urged schools to improve their response to current and future health-related needs and challenges in society and reorientate their activities accordingly.[3] From the above it follows that it is necessary for health professional schools to engage with the community as an essential strategy to achieve a diverse healthforce, increasing access to healthcare and eliminating health disparities.In South Africa (SA), as in the rest of the world, community engagement plays an important part in higher education. Reorientation of health professions education to an inclusive primary healthcare approach was called for in the White Paper on the Transformation of the Healthcare System in SA.[4] Some [5,6] argue that the educational programme for health care professionals should deliver graduates who are prepared for work in community settings, resulting from the move from fixed institutions, such as hospitals, to various settings in the community. Community-based education (CBE) and service learning (SL) as a means of achieving greater social responsibility have become more prominent in health professions education worldwide.CBE in a medical context can be defined as learning activities that take place within communities and take into consideration the main health problems of the country, but do not directly engage the community in the design, conduct and/or evaluation of these activities. [7,8] SL has been defined as 'an educational approach involving curriculum-based, credit-bearing learning experiences in which students (a) participate in contextualised, well-structured and organised service activities aimed at addressing identified service needs in a community, and (b) reflect on the service experiences in order to gain a deeper understanding of the linkage between curriculum content and community dynamics, as well as achieve personal growth and a sense of social responsibility. It requires a collaborative partnership context that enhances mutual, reciprocal teaching and learning among all members of the partnership.' [9] The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), Bloemfontein, SA recognises the tremendous potential of CBE and SL to enhance health professions education, as both allow students to apply the information they learn in the classroom to real-world settings and provide an important avenue for self-reflection. CBE and SL contrib...

Assessing community members’ knowledge and attitude towards Community-Based Education practices in Southern Ethiopia

“…Nasela et al (2019) stated that a multilevel cooperation in community was succeed to prevent, detect, and manage hypertention. This, in turn, will give health university students meaningful experience (Kruger et al, 2015) as well as opportunities (Moodley & Singh, 2018). Based on this study, 188 (47.7%) respondents were found to have good knowledge and 229 (58.1%) had good attitude on university health students' CBE practices.…”

“…The main reason behind this was the encouragements of primary and secondary school students on the program practices mostly during the time of university health students working on CBE practices were searching to find and solve problems of the school environment. Learners tend to share their knowledge and doing peer review in many subjects, including CBE program (Michaels et al, 2017), managing (Kruger et al, 2015), making evaluation on it (Bailey et al, 2016), and even finding the solution for the issues arise (Dreyer et al, 2016;Ndateba et al, 2015). Therefore, it makes sense that students tend to have better knowledge in CBE practices.…”

“…The development and maintenance of community-based interventions requires the management (Kruger et al, 2015) of numerous challenges. Conducting community assessments and coordinating the implementation of interventions in diverse communities requires cultural sensitivity, the coordination of activities with key stakeholders, the appropriate investment and acquisition of resources and systems to evaluate productivity and quality.…”

Innovations in Occupational Therapy Education: The Centralized Service Learning Model

“…In addition, service learning environments promote the communication skills necessary to work with others (Adam, Peters, & Chipchase, 2013). These rich experiences foster the confidence and the skill development essential for self-efficacy (Kruger, Nel, & van Zyl, 2015;Simonian, Brame, Hunt, & Wilder, 2015). A meta-analysis by Yorio and Ye (2012) found service learning had a significant impact on personal insight and awareness of one's personal development.…”

Health education on diabetes at a South African national science festival

“…[17] Healthcare empowerment can be achieved by health education, and it is a vital rudimentary intervention strategy in which learning goals and community service are combined in ways that allow both the student and community to benefit. [18,19] Health education outside the classroom facilitates meaningful learning by enabling pharmacy students to transpose [20] course content into real-life scenarios, which may be difficult to achieve in any other way for the analysis and understanding of their experience with the community. [21] This article reports on the effect of a pharmacy student-developed public health education exhibit at a national science festival (NSF) on the understanding of diabetes, its causes and prevention, among a group of school learner attendees.…”