Undergraduate Premedical Student Perceptions of an Emergency Department-Based Social Needs Screening Program

Hursuong Vongsachang; Sachi Oshima; Christine Nguyen; Suzanne Gaulocher; N Ewen Wang

doi:10.1007/s40670-020-00936-x

Undergraduate Premedical Student Perceptions of an Emergency Department-Based Social Needs Screening Program

Med Sci Educ. 2020 Mar 10;30(2):673-677. doi: 10.1007/s40670-020-00936-x. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Authors

Hursuong Vongsachang¹, Sachi Oshima², Christine Nguyen³, Suzanne Gaulocher⁴, N Ewen Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD USA.
² Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC USA.
³ University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, OK USA.
⁴ Center for Healthy Communities at Plymouth State University, Plymouth, NH USA.
⁵ Stanford University School of Medicine, 900 Welch Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA.

Abstract

Background: Medical school admission requirements increasingly encompass competencies beyond the traditional premedical curriculum, such as service orientation and knowledge of "social determinants of health."

Activity: The Stanford Help Desk is an undergraduate service-learning program that provides didactic and experiential exposure to the social determinants of health through screening for social and legal needs of emergency department (ED) patients. We assessed student perceptions of program impact through student applications, course evaluations, and an online program survey.

Results and discussion: This course strengthened students' understanding of their career aspirations in medicine. Students were resolved to incorporate consideration of social determinants of health in future practice.

Keywords: Medical school competencies; Premedical education; Qualitative program evaluation; Service learning; Social determinants of health.