Undergraduate Premedical Student Perceptions of an Emergency Department-Based Social Needs Screening Program.

BACKGROUND: Medical school admission requirements increasingly encompass competencies beyond the traditional premedical curriculum, such as service orientation and knowledge of "social determinants of health." ACTIVITY: The Stanford Help Desk is an undergraduate service-learning program that provides didactic and experiential exposure to the social determinants of health through screening for social and legal needs of emergency department (ED) patients. We assessed student perceptions of program impact through student applications, course evaluations, and an online program survey. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: This course strengthened students' understanding of their career aspirations in medicine. Students were resolved to incorporate consideration of social determinants of health in future practice.

Participatory photo mapping (PPM): exploring an integrated method for health and place research with young people.

In this manuscript we detail the application and utility of participatory photo mapping (PPM) for studying the implications of place for the health of children. PPM is a transdisciplinary approach that integrates digital tools, narrative interviewing and participatory protocols in order to produce knowledge that can be shared and acted upon by community-based health research partnerships. In discussing the application, strengths, and weaknesses of this method, we relate our own experiences with using PPM for a recent study of neighborhood health and safety that involved young people from a variety of age groups in Madison, Wisconsin. The resultant maps were persuasive presentation tools and provided guidance for community-based interventions.