Evaluating student perceptions and awareness of social prescribing

ABSTRACT

The importance of Social Prescribing (SP) has been highlighted in the National Health Service (NHS) Long-Term Plan. SP is enabling healthcare professionals to refer patients to a link worker, to co-design a non-clinical social prescription to improve their health and well-being. Our aim was to explore perceptions, understanding, and awareness of SP amongst United Kingdom (UK) medical students.

Views were collected using pre- and post-session surveys around teaching sessions in 27 UK medical schools as part of NHS England’s National SP Student Champion Scheme. Pre-session surveys suggested 93% (n = 848) of respondents had not heard of the concept of SP before the session. Post-session surveys highlighted that 98% (n = 895) regarded the concept as useful and relevant to their future careers.

Findings show a lack of awareness regarding Social Prescribing (SP) amongst UK medical students. New strategies are needed to ensure the doctors of tomorrow are equipped with the necessary tools to achieve the recent outcomes for graduates and implement plans for the NHS and general practice which highlight the importance of personalised care. We believe general practice can play an integral role in shaping values and beliefs amongst tomorrow’s doctors through formal education and mentoring.

KEYWORDS:

• Environment and public health
• population characteristics
• health care facilities
• manpower and services
• health care quality
• access
• evaluation
• education

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the NHS England Personalised Care Team, the College of Medicine, the Social Prescribing Network, The Dunhill Medical Trust, and members of the student champion scheme for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical Approval

The authors considered that formal ethical approval was not required because the purpose of this study was to evaluate a teaching approach. Advice from a senior researcher confirmed this.