Student-centred medical education for the future physicians in the community: An experience from Serbia

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this paper is to present an experience from the School of Medicine (University of Belgrade, Serbia) in restructuring of study programs to be compliant with Bologna standards and European best practices in public and community health. We devised the new module with the idea to implement both the concept of patient-centered medicine and community-based learning activity, in the pre-clinical phase of medical education. It emphasis importance of social determinants of health, community activities on health promotion, early contacts with patients, developing communication skills and introduction of primary health care settings Method: All participants of overall four generations of this curriculum (students, patients and physicians) were asked to evaluate their participation in the module, using three types of self-administered questionnaires. Results: Overall 1529 students (response rate 74.1%), 1011 patients (response rate 57.2%) and 118 physicians (response rate 69.5%) had participated in this evaluation. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated significantly higher satisfaction of patient with the participation in the new module (4.48), than the students (3.90) and physicians (4.08) (F=69.882, p = 0.000). Conclusion: The satisfaction of patients enrolled in this module encourages us to continue. Broadening of medical training to primary health care and other "non-medical" community settings enabled students to get insight into the different social determinants of health. However, the instructors need to improve the student's understanding and devotion for this conception.