An evolving community-based dental course on professionalism and community service

In 2007, the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of British Columbia formally introduced the course Professionalism and Community Service (PACS) in year one of its dental curriculum. PACS features community-based dental education as an experiential learning pedagogy, as well as additional themes that support the community experience. PACS will be incorporated into all four years of the curriculum, with health promotion activities in community sites as the focus in years one and two and the provision of patient care in community clinics in years three and four. Students are encouraged to provide feedback on this newly implemented course. The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the themes and modules of PACS, in the context of its being an evolving course for implementing community-based health promotion activities as experiential education for dental students. The current PACS modules are designed to expose students to a variety of experiences-from assessing community needs and developing, applying, and evaluating an educational health promotion activity to demonstrating a systematic approach to ethical reasoning and critical thinking. In their feedback, students have expressed their appreciation for the community experience and suggested modifications to the course in terms of guidelines and assignments.