Promoting students' community service during medical school: the MUSC Gives Back Office

Health professions education recognizes the value of students' engagement in community service, exemplified by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education's adoption in 2007 of a standard requiring service learning opportunities to be available for medical students.

At our institution, a community service office was established in 1993 to provide students information about volunteer community service opportunities.

Since 1993, more than 150,000 service hours have been performed by students in the community. There has been a clear increase in medical student participation. We have found that medical school community service participation is positively associated with better academic performance and can influence residency selection and participation in service following graduation.

With the increased need to develop service opportunities for students, institutions will be required to establish infrastructures to support this. We offer recommendations to others interested in a creating a similar office or program for students.