Role of Service Learning in Medical Students’ Clinical and Professionalism Competencies (2017)

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2017-03-14

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Background: The role of service learning in students’ acquisition of knowledge, skills and professional attitudes is poorly understood. Osteopathic medical students perform service during the first two years as one of the required elements of their ‘doctoring’ course. The availability of this data provides opportunities to more systematically examine the role of service learning in students’ acquisition of clinical skills and professional attitudes. Methods: Self-report data from osteopathic medical students’ required service is required for each activity or event and is now collected electronically. Starting in Fall 2015 semester, this data is now collected electronically. Data includes the type of service, and Likert scale ratings of students overall satisfaction with the experience, and the extent to which each activity meets certain learning objectives and promotes professional values such as service, integrity, respect and collaboration. Results: Data from 690 students with a total of 4,700 service learning evaluation reports are available for analysis. The most common types of service are assisting at indigent clinics, health fairs, sporting events, health education and safety for children and direct health services including OMM. The majority of students strongly agreed or agreed the overall experience of a specific event was good for of them. The majority strongly agreed clinical skills objectives were met during homeless services events and for school and sports physicals. Students ratings of the extent to which various service activities promoted UNTHSC values vary. Basic descriptive statistics facilitate understanding of students’ attitudes toward various types of service activities and generate additional hypotheses regarding satisfaction, learning objectives and professional values. Conclusions: Service learning is designed to provide opportunities for students to engage in experiential learning which is task and problem specific, improve their clinical skills, and experience the benefits of altruistic behavior. The model of learning applied here originated with John Dewey (1938) and further developed by Kolb (1984), and Boyatzis (2000) who addresses issues of emotional intelligence in professional competencies. This is a step in understanding on the impact of service learning in meeting specific objectives in medical education.

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