Interprofessional culinary education workshops at the University of Saskatchewan.

Implication Statement If you want to offer your students an enjoyable and worthwhile interprofessional activity to learn about issues in community nutrition, your university can cook up these interprofessional culinary education workshops. Start with a few enthusiastic students from various health professional programs who can organize, promote, and lead. Include faculty and/or staff to support the students and apply for internal funding. Find workshop facilitators (e.g., chefs), and arrange for program evaluation. It is best to choose workshop topics and themes relevant to your local situation. Ensure workshops are structured to facilitate cooperative and experiential learning. Students will find these sessions informative, practical, and enjoyable. Énoncé des implications de la recherche Les ateliers culinaires sont une activité interprofessionnelle agréable et intéressante que votre université peut proposer aux étudiants qui souhaitent se familiariser avec les enjeux de la nutrition communautaire. Il suffit de réunir, pour commencer, quelques étudiants motivés issus de divers programmes de santé pour organiser, promouvoir et diriger les ateliers. Il s'agit ensuite de trouver les enseignants ou le personnel pour les soutenir, et de s'assurer d'un financement interne. Il faut ensuite trouver des animateurs d'ateliers (par exemple, un chef) et planifier l'évaluation du programme. Il est préférable d'axer les ateliers sur des thèmes adaptés à votre milieu. Les ateliers doivent être structurés de manière à faciliter l'apprentissage coopératif et expérientiel. Les étudiants trouveront ces séances instructives, pratiques et agréables.

Evolution of a community-centred experiential learning module: A mixed-methods approach to promote social accountability and community partnership in undergraduate medical education.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: Education in social determinants of health (SDH) has become an important part of medical curricula, facilitated increasingly through students' experiential learning with communities. The Community and Workplace Centred Learning Experience (CWCLE) module of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, intends to integrate and extend second-year medical students' attitudes, skills, and knowledge about SDH and community resources. We aimed to: 1) Solicit students' self-evaluation of their ability to perform module learning objectives, 2) Assess module impact on student attitudes toward SDH, 3) Obtain feedback from community partners and students about their community experiences, and 4) Use feedback to collaboratively develop recommendations to enhance the CWCLE module. Methods: We used a mixed-method approach to combine quantitative data with stories and personal experiences. We developed an online survey for two cohorts of students who had completed the module, soliciting students to self-evaluate their perceived abilities to perform the module's learning objectives and evaluating students' attitudes towards SDH. We invited representatives from community agencies involved in the CWCLE module to participate in focus groups. We also held separate focus groups with students who participated in the online survey to elaborate on their survey comments. Results: In total, 145 students participated in the online survey (response rate=72.5%). Eleven community agency representatives and seven students participated in five focus groups. Our results demonstrate that medical students benefit from community-based experiential learning of SDH and community resources. We trace evaluations and discussions in the ongoing development of this community-based experiential learning module from its initial, primarily medical-school driven designs, towards a substantial involvement of community-based organizations in its operation and continuing redevelopment. Conclusions: Our mixed method offered us a better understanding of module impact and opportunities for improvement. This module evaluation and reform generated opportunities for community partners to influence decisions in medical education and led to a collaborative evolution of a community-centred learning experience. Medical schools should actively engage community partners in teaching behavioural and social components of the curriculum and acknowledge their partners' expertise to promote community engagement and social accountability in medical education.