Extending community involvement in the medical curriculum: lessons from a case study.
OBJECTIVE
Recent reports have stressed the importance of developing medical students' understanding of primary and community care and their ability to work in health-care teams.


METHODS
An innovative 3-year project aimed to achieve this understanding by broadening the range of health-care professionals and community organizations contributing to the medical curriculum.


METHODS
King's College School of Medicine, London.


METHODS
Undergraduate medical students.


RESULTS
Through partnerships with three local community health care trusts, non-medical health care disciplines in the teaching hospital and a range of voluntary and statutory services, students have been introduced to a broader spectrum of care. This has taken place both within the core curriculum and through the development of special study modules.


CONCLUSIONS
Involving teachers and organizations which have not traditionally contributed to medical education raises philosophical issues around the aims and rationale of their involvement and practical issues such as gaining curriculum time, recruiting suitable teachers and gaining credibility for the courses. We analyse the benefits and difficulties inherent in broadening the curriculum in this way and assess the lessons our experience provides for the future expansion of such learning, both locally and nationally.
Seabrook
M A
MA
Department of General Practice & Primary Care, Guy's, King's and St Thomas's School of Medicine, London, UK.
Lempp
H
H
Woodfield
S J
SJ
D003153:Community Health Services; D003154:Community Medicine / Q000193:education*; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008131:London