Making a difference: an interdisciplinary social engagement project

Abstract

In Sept 2013 the Plymouth Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry enrolled its first students. From the beginning this new Plymouth-based medical school set out be distinctive and to enshrine our parent University principles in the curriculum that we offer. We decided that the term “making a difference” could be used both to summarize our mission as a medical and dental school, and to characterise the individual student experience that we offer.

- The school as a whole would make a difference to the health and wellbeing of our population - Every student will be able to ‘make a difference’ during their time with us.

This project will put this into practice by:

1) Providing a range of new inter-disciplinary social engagement activities in which medical and nursing students can participate 2) Using these experiences to enhance learning and reflection on key themes in population health 3) Using these experiences to enhance collaboration and shared learning between medical and nursing students 2) Promoting these joint activities across the medical and nursing schools and for all years 3) Evaluation of results, both for the student experience and for the communities or projects in which they are involved 4) Disseminating our findings as examples and good practice guidelines both locally within the University, and on a wider scale to the medical education and nursing communities nationally and internationally