ENHANCING LEARNING AND THE UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE THROUGH COMMUNITY BASED PRACTICE

Institutions of higher education play an important role to enhance the learning of the students and providing the best undergraduate experiences. This paper presents unique learning enhancement and off campus experience of the medical students through the Community Based Practice (CBP) program in the private medical university in Malaysia in 2015. It is crucial for medical students to have an insight of preventive and promotive health care of the community and relate the issues of social justice and equity with the practice of medicine. A team of four students got an opportunity of a placement at the non-government organisation- a community home for one whole day every week for the period of eight weeks under the supervision of academic advisor and the field educator. The students experienced a range of activities with the host agency including the health promotion and awareness of personal and oral hygiene, mental health and first aid assistance among the children. Moreover, they got an opportunity to apply knowledge and critical thinking to the social and health issues in community while identifying the social determinants of health of their respective clients. The learning was further supported by in campus lectures, tutorials and group discussions with academic advisor. The assignments encouraged critical and reflective thinking, including the journal for individual reflection. At the end of the program, the students showcased their engagement activities through the oral and poster presentations during the community engagement week. In conclusion, through the community based practice, the students had improved the ability to understand and reflect the issues of health care, roles of nongovernmental organizations, importance of distribution of resources in the society, team work and communication skills which further enriched their undergraduate experiences.