Beyond the ward and waiting room: A community-based non-clinical placement programme for Australian medical students

Abstract

Background: Placement programmes are essential to medical education but almost invariably take place in clinical settings, even when community based. Australia's Monash University, however, has included in its core MBBS curriculum a non-clinical placement for second-year students, the Community Based Practice (CBP) programme. This involves partnerships with community organisations that are mostly non-medical. The programme includes a health promotion (HP) component where students respond to a HP or support need nominated by their placement organisation. Though inspired by community-based medical education (CBME) programmes in England and South Australia's Flinders University, its non-clinical focus represents a creative development in Australian medical education.

Methods: This article describes the programme, explores its place within CBME and outlines the results of its analysis of student responses using SPSS and NVivo.

Results: The evidence showed development of students’ communication skills; increased understanding and appreciation of the mainly non-medical health support infrastructure in local communities; increased understanding of HP and community health support at the local level; and contributions to the placement organisations through small-scale research or health support projects.

Conclusion: Placement programmes such as this can significantly contribute to medical education, especially in supporting health in local communities and understanding the needs of the marginalised.