title: Community-based medical education: is success a result of meaningful personal learning experiences?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Community-based medical education (CBME) is the delivery of medical education in a specific social context. Learners become a part of social and medical communities where their learning occurs. Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) are year-long community-based placements where the curriculum and clinical experience is typically delivered by primary care physicians. These programs have proven to be robust learning environments, where learners develop strong communication skills and excellent clinical reasoning. To date, no learning model has been offered to describe CBME.
  
  
  METHODS
  The characteristics of CBME are explored by the authors who suggest that the social and professional context provided in small communities enhances medical education. The authors postulate that meaningfulness is engendered by the authentic context, which develops over time. These relationships with preceptors, patients and the community provide meaningfulness, which in turn enhances learning.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors develop a novel learning model. They propose that the context-rich environment of CBME allows for meaningful relationships and experiences for students and that such meaningfulness enhances learning.
authors.affiliation: Professor, Division of Clinical Sciences, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sioux Lookout, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Len
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Walters
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000379:methods; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations