Perceptions, reflections and learnings of Medicine students about a three-year experience of community-based education

Abstract

Introduction: Community-Based Education (CBE) represents an educational strategy that brings medical training closer to real scenario practice, and promotes medical care of greater acceptability that contemplates the social sphere of health/disease processes and that adequately addresses the real needs of the population. To date, there are few publications at the regional level in which the students themselves reflect on this type of training experience. Objectives: To identify and communicate the main lessons learned from a CBE experience by Medicine-degree students. Methodology: The systematization of experiences made by the first cohort that completed this experience at the Instituto Universitario del Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires was reviewed. We reflected on the main difficulties observed and the most significant lessons learned from this experience. Domains were established, and the texts of the systematization generated during the course were codified. Then, a concept map was generated from which this work was written. Results: This experience had three well-defined moments for the students: an initial stage, characterized by uncertainty and discomfort; an intermediate one, with strategic learning and some transformation; and an advanced one, with deep and situated learning. Conclusion: It is recommended that EBC experiences are assigned enough time in the planning and that they end with a reflection process promoted by the teaching team.

Keywords

• medical education
• primary health care
• social learning