The Inclusion of Service Learning in Medical School Curricula to Revive Medicine’s Social Contract

• In Event: 2222 - Teaching and Learning Symposium Roundtable Session
  In Informal Discussion Roundtable: Table 07. Innovations in Teaching and Learning at the Graduate Level

Abstract

Medical education is in a state of transition. The Association of American Medical Colleges aims to emphasize social determinants of health and other non-biological factors in medical training. I contend that this change would help future medical providers to better adhere to medicine's social contract. There are many reasons why changing curricula in this way is challenging, including institutional resistance to change and faculty’s lack of training in these intangible parts of the profession. I intend to use social constructivism to examine how the introduction of a service learning component into a medical school curriculum could impact students’ attitudes toward patients and their adherence to medicine’s social contract, a contract that has been strained over time due to social, political, and, economical factors. As part of an ongoing longitudinal study, two hundred medical students were surveyed before and after engaging in service learning after their first year of medical school. These students were compared with fifty recent graduates of medical school who had not participated in service learning. Responses were collected and linked to six of the expectations that society has of medicine that correlated with the survey. This presentation will discuss ways in which service learning can lead to a positive shift in students’ attitudes toward working with underserved populations and strengthen their adherence to medicine’s social contract. This presentation will note how sociological theories can be useful in the construction of interventions to enable students to connect both theory and practice to better uphold social contracts and provide students with entirely different ways to learn within their medical training. Attendees will find this presentation useful to address challenges that may arise when integrating service learning within medical training.

Author

• Tariem Atauren Burroughs, Temple university