Medical students educate teens about skin cancer: what have we learned?
Skin cancer is a serious societal problem, and public awareness outreach, including to youth, is crucial. Medical students have joined forces to educate adolescents about skin cancer with significant impacts; even one 50-min interactive outreach session led to sustained changes in knowledge and behavior in a cohort of 1,200 adolescents surveyed. Medical students can act as a tremendous asset to health awareness public outreach efforts: enthusiastic volunteerism keeps education cost-effective, results in exponential spread of information, reinforces knowledge and communication skills of future physicians, and can result in tangible, life-saving benefits such as early detection of melanoma.
Kamell
Jeanette M
JM
School of Medicine, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA. kamellj@derm.ucsf.edu
Rietkerk
William
W
Lam
Ken
K
Phillips
Jason M
JM
Wu
Jashin J
JJ
McCullough
Jerry L
JL
Linden
Kenneth G
KG
Osann
Kathryn
K
D000293:Adolescent; D003142:Communication; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D012574:Schools; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*