Teaching Advocacy Through Community-Based Service Learning: A Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Psychiatry
• Public Health

Background:

• Advocacy is a crucial medical practice and educational component.
• Teaching and evaluating advocacy skills in medical education presents challenges.
• Community-based service learning (CBSL) is an emerging educational tool for advocacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of educational strategies and outcomes for advocacy training within CBSL.
• To identify effective methods for teaching advocacy skills to medical learners.
• To explore the relevance of CBSL for psychiatric education.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature search was conducted across multiple databases (PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, ERIC, Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest).
• 2,813 articles were initially retrieved, with 68 included after screening by two independent reviewers.
• Data were extracted, charted, analyzed, and discussed by the research team.

Main Results:

• Seven key themes emerged regarding advocacy education approaches: community partner type, populations served, program participants, program structure, outcome evaluation, sustainability, and challenges.
• Identified diverse CBSL program formats and evaluation methodologies for advocacy training.
• Highlighted heterogeneity in CBSL implementation and outcome measurement.

Conclusions:

• CBSL offers varied program formats and evaluation methods valuable for advocacy training, especially in psychiatry.
• Significant heterogeneity exists in CBSL implementation and outcome assessment.
• Recommendations for future research in CBSL-based advocacy education are provided.