Is Community-engaged Learning Possible During a Pandemic: A Call for Culturally Competent Medical Education
MedEdPublish, 2020
Nirmala Prakash, Joel Grunhut, Heather Howard
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In brief
Medical schools now teach health disparities in the classroom, but students rarely get authentic community-based public health experience before residency. We argue that community-engaged learning is central to cultural competency and describe its role as medical education adapts to COVID-19.
Key findings
Classroom teaching on health disparities is missing authentic, community-engaged public health experiences for medical students.
COVID-19 affected patients differently depending on their individual, cultural and community settings, which makes community-engaged learning more important.
We describe how community-engaged learning can be used as medical education adapts to the pandemic.
Abstract
Previously, medical school curriculum focused on faculty or physician-led basic science and traditional clinical experiences, with medical students only gaining experience of the community in which they practice during residency. In an effort to enable students to understand US healthcare disparities, the introduction of public health topics regarding marginalized communities and underrepresented individuals have been included in the classroom. However, missing from this shift is the inclusion of authentic public health educational experiences for medical students. These learning experiences are vital to truly understanding the marginalized and discriminated patient populations physicians will encounter. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth challenges for medical educators in numerous ways including how to effectively prepare students in understanding cultural competency through community-engaged learning for a new set of patient population; the pandemic patient. Due to health disparities, each patient experienced this pandemic differently based on their individual, cultural and community setting; also highlighting the importance of community-engaged learning. Here, the authors posit the role and importance of community-engaged learning in medical education and its utilization during the changing medical landscape due to COVID-19.
How to cite
Prakash N, Grunhut J, Howard H. Is Community-engaged Learning Possible During a Pandemic: A Call for Culturally Competent Medical Education. MedEdPublish. 2020;9:264. doi:10.15694/mep.2020.000264.1