Community Health Immersion Programs in Medical Institutions

• Published in: Journal of pharmacy & bioallied science Vol. 16; no. Suppl 2; pp. S1857 - S1859
• Main Authors: Shrivastava, Saurabh RamBihariLal, Borkar, Sonali, Petkar, Prithvi, Shrivastava, Prateek Saurabh, Mendhe, Harshal Gajanan, Bandre, Gulshan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 01.04.2024; Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd; Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Edition: 2
• Subjects: Care and treatment; community health; cultural competence; Evidence-based medicine; Immersion; Medical colleges; medical education; Medical students; Patient education; patient-centered care; Patients; Public health; Short Communication; Social aspects; India; Community health; cultural competence; medical education; patient-centered care
• ISSN: 0976-4879; 0975-7406
• DOI: 10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_1242_23

ABSTRACT Exposure to the local community is crucial and pivotal to deliver contextual learning to medical students and thereby aid in the process of attaining subject-specific competencies. In the field of medical education, community health immersion refers to a set of systematic and immersive educational experiences for medical students to expose them to sociocultural and health-related attributes of the general population. Community health immersion has been linked with multiple merits that are crucial in the making of a competent medical graduate, who is well equipped to deliver patient-centered care. Even though there are multiple benefits to community health immersion nevertheless, its implementation in the community might vary based on institutional support and local community-related factors. There is an immense need to overcome these challenges to ensure optimal benefit, and this will essentially require the adoption of a multipronged approach with the help of all the concerned stakeholders.