Meral Türk Soyer

Public health education in Ege University Medical Faculty: Developing a community-oriented model

Background: Ege University Medical Faculty (EUMF) introduced a community-oriented curriculum in 2001. Aims: To evaluate the new public health education program in EUMF curriculum. Method: The study adopted triangulated methods. Quantitatively, a comparison of the students who were exposed to a community-oriented curriculum (Year 4 in 2007) was made with the students who were exposed to the traditional curriculum (Year 4 in 2005) in terms of their assessment of their achievement of our learning objectives. A total of 255 students in 2005 (80.7%) and 243 students in 2007 (81.5%) were surveyed using a questionnaire. Qualitatively, five focus group- and five individual interviews were performed with the 2007 cohort. Results: Except the one related to teamwork (p > 0.05) all learning objectives yielded significantly higher scores in the 2007 cohort than in the 2005 cohort (p < 0.05). The qualitative analysis supported the achievement of objectives in the 2007 cohort. The students appreciated the relevance of public health education with clinical subjects and interactive methods, but criticized didactic lectures and written assignments. Conclusions: A community-oriented approach is more effective in achieving a holistic approach to health problems. Improving community-based activities and assessment methods would be more successful in integrating population health into medical training.