Community service, learning and the medical student.

Abstract

Medical students need learning experiences outside the classroom, clinic room and hospital room if they are to become integral parts of the communities in which they will practice medicine. Service-learning incorporated into the traditional medical school curriculum can provide a vehicle to accomplish this goal, and provide an avenue to enhance the professional development of the physician in training. This paper describes efforts to incorporate community service and service-learning into a traditional medical school curriculum. The unique nature of our location in a rural state with several required rural rotations with our local community partners has facilitated this effort. Incorporation of service-learning into a medical curriculum can be accomplished and will enhance the professional development of the students.