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      Why and How Civic Health Should Be Incorporated Into Medical Education

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          Abstract

          Civic health refers to the ability of a community to organize and collectively address problems that affect the well-being of its members through democratic participation. Civic health should be an integral part of the medical school curriculum because improving a community's civic health shifts the distribution of power toward patients, better enabling them to address social determinants of health that are affecting their well-being. This article details how to effectively integrate civic health curriculum into already-existing medical education frameworks, outlines how these interventions will improve both patient care and the student experience, and addresses barriers that might restrict the implementation. Civic health can be integrated into the didactic curriculum in the form of lunchtime guest lectures, panels with community organizations, and small-group discussions; it can be integrated into experiential curriculum by distributing QR codes to aid in voter registration, organizing voter registration drives, and participating in nonpartisan canvassing. This civic health content can be integrated into existing social justice curricula without massive investment or structural change. Medical students are capable and effective messengers of civic health and can affect change at all levels of training. Notably, because civic health is directly actionable, it can be a source of motivation rather than burnout for medical students. As students develop into medical professionals, the training in civic health improves their understanding of social determinants of health and enables them to play an important role in promoting civic engagement and empowering patients with the democratic tools necessary to enact social change.

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          Most cited references26

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          The social determinants of health: coming of age.

          In the United States, awareness is increasing that medical care alone cannot adequately improve health overall or reduce health disparities without also addressing where and how people live. A critical mass of relevant knowledge has accumulated, documenting associations, exploring pathways and biological mechanisms, and providing a previously unavailable scientific foundation for appreciating the role of social factors in health. We review current knowledge about health effects of social (including economic) factors, knowledge gaps, and research priorities, focusing on upstream social determinants-including economic resources, education, and racial discrimination-that fundamentally shape the downstream determinants, such as behaviors, targeted by most interventions. Research priorities include measuring social factors better, monitoring social factors and health relative to policies, examining health effects of social factors across lifetimes and generations, incrementally elucidating pathways through knowledge linkage, testing multidimensional interventions, and addressing political will as a key barrier to translating knowledge into action.
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            Evaluating Strategies For Reducing Health Disparities By Addressing The Social Determinants Of Health.

            The opportunities for healthy choices in homes, neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces can have decisive impacts on health. We review scientific evidence from promising interventions focused on the social determinants of health and discuss how such interventions can improve population health and reduce health disparities. We found sufficient evidence of successful outcomes to support disparity-reducing policy interventions targeted at education and early childhood; urban planning and community development; housing; income enhancements and supplements; and employment. Cost-effectiveness evaluations show that these interventions lead to long-term societal savings, but the interventions require more routine attention to cost considerations. We discuss challenges to implementation, including the need for long-term financing to scale up effective interventions for implementation at the local, state, and national levels.
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              Perspective: Physician advocacy: what is it and how do we do it?

              Many medical authors and organizations have called for physician advocacy as a core component of medical professionalism. Despite widespread acceptance of advocacy as a professional obligation, the concept remains problematic within the profession of medicine because it remains undefined in concept, scope, and practice. If advocacy is to be a professional imperative, then medical schools and graduate education programs must deliberately train physicians as advocates. Accrediting bodies must clearly define advocacy competencies, and all physicians must meet them at some basic level. Sustaining and fostering physician advocacy will require modest changes to both undergraduate and graduate medical education. Developing advocacy training and practice opportunities for practicing physicians will also be necessary. In this article, as first steps toward building a model for competency-based physician advocacy training and delineating physician advocacy in common practice, the authors propose a definition and, using the biographies of actual physician advocates, describe the spectrum of physician advocacy.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Academic Medicine
                Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
                1040-2446
                2022
                June 02 2022
                December 2022
                : 97
                : 12
                : 1760-1764
                Article
                10.1097/ACM.0000000000004765
                36149387
                3f77ec2e-c8c8-4b09-ac10-8506d02fcf45
                © 2022
                History

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