Assessing community organization needs for medical school community service-learning

Abstract

Ramy Boles, Leshawn Benedict, Joyce Lui, Roxanne Wright, Fok-Han Leung

Objective: While literature exists on student feedback to community service-learning (CSL), community organizations have played a small role in re-shaping CSL within medical curricula. The objective of this study was to analyze the feedback from community supervisors involved in a CSL course at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. Methods: Semi-structured one-to-one qualitative interviews were conducted with community supervisors (n = 9) between October 2018 and January 2019. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was completed using Dedoose software. Researchers independently coded transcripts and developed an initial codebook. Once inter-rater reliability (Cohen’s κ coefficient) > 0.80 was achieved, the remaining transcripts were coded deductively, and additional codes were developed inductively when existing code were unable to describe new data. Themes from the analysis were identified. Results: Four overarching themes were identified. Perceived benefits to students by community supervisors focused on their contributions to the development of future physicians through understanding community needs and exposure to organizations that may be resourceful to physicians. Among organizational benefits of CSL, extra hands, work-specific benefits, and medical student’s unique expertise were subthemes highlighted. CSL benefits were not without challenges. Scheduling difficulties, motivating students to understand their work’s value, and curriculum gaps identified were challenges community supervisors faced. Three subthemes emerged under areas for improvement. Community supervisors emphasised increasing flexibility to make experiences more meaningful for students. They also wanted more dialogue between organizations to gain insight from one another and a clearer understanding of CSL and its role in the curriculum. Conclusions: Community supervisors viewed academic institutions to be in a unique position having established many partnerships with community organizations. Developing networking opportunities between organizations should be encouraged across CSL programs in medical education. As well, clearer understanding of CSL as part of the medical curriculum was important for community supervisors to better understand their roles and responsibilities.

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