Advancing Equity & Justice Through Community-Based Learning & Assessment

Proposal: The Service-Learning Course, embedded within the nation's first Department of Health Systems Science, at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine in Pasadena, CA, strives to ignite an unwavering commitment amongst its graduates to advance the health equity needs of its patients and communities they serve. The 2-year-long mandatory Course attempts to strategically complement the clinical curriculum with opportunities to nurture students' critical consciousness, social accountability, and humility through monthly exposures to community experts and a longitudinal project that centers community-needs and advances a community-defined goal. Along the way, students learn health systems science skills through the lens of community, health equity, and power distribution. Students are evaluated by faculty-appointed community-based preceptors who are safety net clinicians and leaders, in collaboration with significant support from medical school faculty who provide administrative, curricular, and mentorship support to learners.
Now in its 4th year of operation, the Service-Learning Course has drawn on many lessons from its community engagement strategy through intentional co-authorship with partners and students. We look forward to sharing how those lessons inform the way we model, teach, and assess our learners toward our goal of graduating a different learner - a health professional capable of providing clinical care while simultaneously caring for equity needs within their communities.