Social medicine education towards structural transformation in Palestine

Social medicine, a field of study that uniquely centers the social and structural drivers of health in society, has been increasingly integrated into medical professional education over the last several decades. In Palestine, due to the fragmentation of Palestinian geographies, education, culture, and health, integrating a social medicine approach for allied health care students has remained elusive. We seek to introduce the theoretical underpinnings and practical implementation of an experiential Palestine social medicine course.

30 Students from the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and the United States convened at the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University, Palestine, for a three-week experiential social medicine course. The course introduced critical social and structural frameworks and utilized a biosocial model for training and education that included reflective knowledge acquisition and praxis. Pre- and post-course evaluations provided feedback and insight into the knowledge, attitudes, and learning evolution of the student cohort.

Participant experiences highlighted the importance of the critical reflective nature of the course and importance of practice through praxis. Students identified the convening of Palestinians from different regions and the focus on Palestinian-centered perspectives as foundational for the course. Tensions highlighted included the challenges and distress in identifying tangible next steps in addressing the identified structural determinants of Palestinian health.

The Palestine social medicine course provided a Palestinian narrative-centered course that focused on critical structural frameworks to identify and clarify the overarching connections of various, fractured Palestinian health experiences. This course provides a model, and first step, towards meaningful decolonial education, partnership, and praxis, while also providing further evidence of the power of mobilizing in health solidarity and the transformative power of the social medicine movement.