INTRODUCTION: Providing adequate access to healthcare for medically underserved areas/populations (MUA/Ps) is one of the greatest challenges in public health today. In order to address this issue, a long-term, multifaceted approach is required. The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine (OUCOM) developed two longitudinal Community Health (CH) electives that allow medical students to volunteer in MUAs during the first 3 years of training in an effort to develop a greater understanding of MUPs, promote greater empathy for MUPs, cultivate an interest in Primary Care, and strengthen a desire to serve MUPs long-term. Students volunteered 80 hours in 15 charitable clinics in Oklahoma City, 8 hours with different nonprofits in MUAs, and 12 hours in several community-based, preventative health initiatives. This program review evaluated the effectiveness of the CH electives in accomplishing these four course objectives. METHODS: Fifty 4th year medical students from the Class of 2021 OUCOM completed a survey assessing the impact of their experiences completing the CH electives on 8 metrics. Only 43 students completed all survey questions. This survey used a five-point Likert Scale (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree). Qualitatively, students were asked to describe their experience completing the electives. RESULTS: Of the 43 research participants, 100% reported increased empathy for MUA/Ps, 95% reported increased understanding of challenges facing MUA/Ps, 88% reported increased understanding of challenges facing physicians working with MUPs, 86% reported increased interest in working with MUPs, and 54% reported increased interest in Primary Care. The most common words used to describe the course were “eye-opening”, “rewarding”, and “impactful”. CONCLUSION: The CH electives serve as an innovative and education-based strategy to increase medical student empathy for MUPs, increase understanding of challenges facing MUPs and the physicians that work with them, and increase interest in working with MUPs. A reduced percentage of students reported increased interest in Primary Care when compared to the other survey metrics. More investigation is required to further assess this finding.
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