Why is it important?
Medical schools have a critical role in training doctors who understand the impact of societal inequity and who become advocates for the communities in which they work. MEdIC is committed to developing socially accountable medical education. Our work spans the student curriculum, widening access to healthcare careers for under-represented groups and creating an inclusive educational environment for all students and staff.
Innovation and research
MEdIC has developed a Community Action Project for our Year 3 medical students on primary care placements to work in collaboration with the local community to design and deliver a targeted intervention to address a local health need. These projects synergistically address community health needs and provide educational benefit for medical students. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, MEdIC worked to generate a digital version of this project, whereby medical students work remotely in partnership with local community organisations to identify and address key community health needs. Examples of students’ outputs include: creating accessible caption videos in multiple languages with the BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) Health Forum and collaborating with the Queen’s Park Rangers Community Trust to create support packages for local residents. More details can be found here.
MEdIC supports several areas of research and innovation aimed at widening access to healthcare. This includes an innovative programme in which medical students work with a local primary school to deliver health and science education to primary school pupils. Evaluation has shown the programme to raise aspirations of school pupils as well as providing medical students with an opportunity to increase their understanding of the diverse community in which they are studying.
MEdIC also leads the WATCCH (Widening Access to Community Careers in Healthcare) programme, which supports local school students from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds to access healthcare careers via work experience, education workshops and mentoring. Research in this area focuses on how such programmes address barriers faced by students from widening participation backgrounds in accessing healthcare careers.
MEdIC believes that all students should be able to remain true to themselves and be able to develop a sense of belonging within their medical schools. There is however ongoing discrimination of under-represented students contributing to identity suppression in order to ‘fit in’ which often interferes with students’ ability to succeed academically and professionally. MEdIC is undertaking a number of projects in this area, bringing together leading medical education academics to form a National Diversity and Inclusion in Primary Care Education Working Group with the aim of strengthening approaches to diversity and inclusion within primary care education. The team is also conducting research to better understand how we can create safe learning environments that protect and promote a sense of ‘authenticity’ in medical students impacted by discrimination.
If you’re interested in discussing a project or collaboration on this theme please contact Dr Nina Dutta n.dutta@imperial.ac.uk