Engaging The Disengaged: How To Effectively Teach The Principles Of Public Health And Evidence-based Medicine

Abstract

Introduction/Background: New students often enter their medical training with narrow concepts of what constitutes 'medicine'. The wider ideals of public health may therefore be viewed as abstract or less relevant than clinical skills and given lower priority than subjects such as anatomy or medical science. Purpose/Objectives: Medical school curricula across Australia are struggling to incorporate all recommended knowledge areas, and it can be hard to find space for units perceived as less 'clinical'. Within the Joint Medical Program (JMP), which operates between the Universities of Newcastle (UoN) and New England (UNE), core principles of public health and evidence based medicine (EBM) is taught as a compulsory unit in first year. Many students enter their undergraduate course with limited mathematical backgrounds and struggle to comprehend the relevance of public health within the larger structure of the degree. The objective of this review was to evaluate how this course might be modified and more appropriately linked to clinical learning outcomes.