Abstract
BackgroundFor promoting autonomous learning motivation, the learning effect of community-oriented service is beneficial, because through community participation and service, students can transfer their implicit cognition of ethics into explicit cognition, leading to the cultivation of a sympathetic partnership between the community and medical students. Despite the proven benefits of medical students’ community health service (CHS) in Western countries, CHS programs designed for medical students are not well established in mainland China, and their effects on medical students’ ethical cognition are largely unknown. This study evaluated the effects of CHS programs on the ethical cognition of medical students.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on third- and fourth-year medical students and graduates working at Shantou University Medical College by using a self-administered anonymous questionnaire. Through interviews, we applied a thematic approach to analyze the responses of the participating students. The questionnaire adopted in this study was revised based on a review of the literature on medical ethics in medical students and on the CHS environment in China. The reviewed questionnaires included an evaluation questionnaire on cultivating medical ethics in a CHS context, and questionnaires used to explore the cultivation and transformation of medical ethics in medical students during the preclinical period.ResultsA total of 361 (54.4%) undergraduate medical students and 302 (45.6%) graduates participated in this survey. Significant differences were observed in self-evaluation of the cognitive development of ethics between those who had participated in CHS programs 1–5 times and those who had participated > 6 times. The successful identification of accepting money from the patients under the table as unethical behavior significantly differed (p = .031) among the graduates but not (p = .567) among the undergraduate students. The participants expressed the positive impact of CHS programs on their self-development.ConclusionCHS programs can be widely applied in medical education in China. This educational strategy, which supports medical professionalism and incorporates humanitarian behavior as a complement to learning, should be encouraged and promoted nationally.
Highlights
For promoting autonomous learning motivation, the learning effect of community-oriented service is beneficial, because through community participation and service, students can transfer their implicit cognition of ethics into explicit cognition, leading to the cultivation of a sympathetic partnership between the community and medical students
In summary, community health service (CHS) in mainland China may play a crucial role in medical education
The inclusion of CHS in medical education is welcomed by medical students, and our findings are a reference for promoting CHS in other medical schools in mainland China
Summary
For promoting autonomous learning motivation, the learning effect of community-oriented service is beneficial, because through community participation and service, students can transfer their implicit cognition of ethics into explicit cognition, leading to the cultivation of a sympathetic partnership between the community and medical students. Despite the proven benefits of medical students’ community health service (CHS) in Western countries, CHS programs designed for medical students are not well established in mainland China, and their effects on medical students’ ethical cognition are largely unknown. This study evaluated the effects of CHS programs on the ethical cognition of medical students. Chinese medical education and practice have long ignored the cultivation of professionalism in medical students. The findings of this study indicate that the usefulness of a community health service (CHS) lies in whether medical students can apply what they have learned in the classroom to their practices within the CHS. The use of CHS programs in academic study can help students in more clearly understanding the needs of patients and in more effectively solving practical problems [3,4,5]
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