Community partnerships in medical education: Narratives of medical students

While medical education has traditionally been designed, led and delivered exclusively by clinicians and academics, there has been an increasing shift towards diversifying actors involved in training future generations of health professionals. Public and patient involvement in learning increases the likelihood that learning is relevant to the communities we purport to serve. This article explores the experiences of medical students who were partnered with a community-based organisation (CBOs) as part of the intercalated Global Health BSc at Imperial College London. Students involved in this programme highlight opportunities to understand the needs of communities they were placed with, beyond what is possible to understand in clinical practice; this is essential to support them in becoming holistic, patient-centred practitioners. Students also found this opportunity helpful to gain insight into the role and value of the voluntary sector in healthcare and develop transferrable skills in project leadership and management. It is hypothesised that the benefits of this partnership extend to community-organisations; they gain experience working with students, who provide an external view of their services and may be helpful in the delivery of quality-improvement projects. Communities could also benefit from interactions with students by sharing insight into their needs and priorities, and in turn, shaping students' priorities as future health professionals and co-designers of voluntary-sector initiatives within the community. Whilst the establishment of these partnerships does not come without its challenges, this article also highlights lessons for students and institutions undergoing similar programmes, including clarification of goals, stakeholder consultation, sustainability of interventions, voicing the community, timetable flexibility and funding.