Twelve tips for medical students to facilitate a Photovoice project

Abstract

Participatory action projects, such as Photovoice, can provide medical trainees with a unique opportunity for community engagement. Through Photovoice, participants with lived experience engage in dialog and capture photographs of community issues. Participants subsequently develop narratives that accompany photos to raise awareness about community needs. In this paper, we describe twelve tips to develop a Photovoice project and discuss how medical students can engage communities through a participatory action lens. Such an approach not only serves as a method for medical students to learn about social determinants of health through the perspective of lived experience, but also has the capacity of building advocacy and community collaboration skills. Through providing a voice to marginalized individuals using Photovoice, medical students can partner with communities to work toward social change. Photovoice participants also benefit from the project as it provides them with a platform to highlight strengths and weaknesses in their community.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Dalhousie Medical Students’ Society, Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group, and Medical Humanities program at Dalhousie University for providing funding for the Photovoice project. Special thanks to the youth and program coordinators at the Needham Community Centre and St. George’s YouthNet for participating in the project.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Notes on contributors

Deep Jaiswal, Matthew J. To, Heather Hunter, Ciaran Lane, Cinera States, Brittany Cameron, Suzanne Kathleen Clarke, and Catherine Cox are medical students at Dalhousie University.Anna MacLeod is an Associate Professor and the Director of Education Research in the Division of Medical Education at Dalhousie University