Self-directed community health assessment projects in a required family medicine clerkship: an effective way to teach community-oriented primary care.

Background and Objectives: Community-oriented primary care (COPC) is a key teaching objective of many medical school family medicine clerkships. Though many programs are in place, little is published evaluating the effectiveness of curricula. Methods: Within the family medicine clerkship at Dartmouth Medical School, students complete community health assessments. To assess the degree to which the student projects were meeting the goals and expectations of the clerkship assignment and COPC, project papers for 1 year were reviewed and coded using content analysis. Results: Virtually all students fulfilled the stated goals of the project. The majority of students also demonstrated new skills, such as use of a database or creation of an improvement in the community. Students frequently covered populations such as homeless, children, or Native Americans, and selected topics not covered elsewhere in the medical school curriculum, such as oral health, effect of the environment, and educating providers. Conclusions: Students developed a variety of self-selected community health projects and public health interventions. Completing these projects in a core family medicine clerkship encouraged students to expand their views of health beyond the clinic and into the community.