Teaching Community Health Needs Assessment to First Year Medical Students: Integrating with Longitudinal Clinical...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Public Health
• Rural Health

Background:

• Community health education is crucial for physicians in rural areas.
• Current medical school curricula often delay this training and focus on non-rural settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a new population and community health assessment curriculum for first-year medical students in a rural setting.
• To assess the impact of early-year training on student awareness and skills.

Main Methods:

• A formative evaluation of a curriculum including lectures, online database review, and debriefing sessions.
• Pre- and post-course surveys and exam questions administered to 210 students over four academic years (2013-2017).

Main Results:

• Significant increases in student familiarity with online resources (29.5% to 94.8%), understanding of community health assessments (67.5% to 96.7%), planning skills (20.0% to 90.5%), and awareness of ACA requirements (12.4% to 82.4%).
• Students performed well on exams and found the component aligned with rural clinical preceptorship objectives.

Conclusions:

• Early introduction of community health assessment training in medical school is effective for first-year students in rural programs.
• Reinforcement in later years and long-term studies on physician behavior are recommended.