Evaluations by three graduating classes of a required community health project

The authors analyzed seniors' evaluations of the first three years of an intensive community health project at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University in 1988-89, 1989-90, and 1990-91. The project was designed to provide a public health perspective by having the students select, study, and propose solutions to a community health problem. Of 285 seniors, 240 (84%) completed evaluation questionnaires, using a five-point scale. The students' perceptions of the value of the project became steadily more favorable with each subsequent class; the classes of 1990 and 1991 rated the value of the project as being greater than that of most other experiences in their medical education. The project was more positively evaluated by the 106 responding students (44%) who planned to enter primary care specialties. The students who invested more time in the project also perceived its value to be greater.