title: Improvements in CanMEDS competencies for medical students in an interdisciplinary and voluntary setting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To practice medicine, doctors must master leadership, communication, team management, and collaboration, in addition to medical knowledge. The CanMEDS framework describes seven roles of a doctor, but the six nonmedical expert roles are de-emphasized in the academic medical curriculum. Innovative opportunities are needed for medical students to develop as participants in a world of interdisciplinary health care.
  
  
  METHODS
  We founded a volunteer-based, interdisciplinary, student-run project called SUNDdag (HEALTHday) with 60 students from 12 different educational backgrounds. To evaluate the learning outcomes of the project, we conducted a cross-sectional study using an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students joined the project due to it being health-promoting, volunteer-based, and interdisciplinary. The medical students reported a significant increase of skills in all seven roles except for "medical expert". They reported an increased understanding of the non-health-related students' skills.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In their future careers, medical students must collaborate with health care professionals in a team-based approach to patient care and with non-health-related professionals in administrative tasks. Interdisciplinary volunteer-based initiatives like SUNDdag are potential platforms for medical students to improve their CanMEDS competencies. We encourage students to initiate similar projects and we encourage faculties to support volunteer-based, interdisciplinary initiatives due to their favorable cost-benefit ratio.
authors.affiliation: International Medical Cooperation Committee, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mads Dam
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Vildbrad
authors.affiliation: International Medical Cooperation Committee, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Johanne Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lyhne
keywords: interprofessional education; medical education; medical students; voluntarism