Establishing a field epidemiology elective for medical students in Kenya: A strategy for increasing public health awareness and workforce capacity

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Epidemiol Glob Health
• Personal Author:
  Arvelo, Wences ; Gura, Zeinab ; Amwayi, Samuel ; Wiersma, Petra ; Omolo, Jared ; Becknell, Steven ; Jones, Donna ; Ongore, Dismas ; Dicker, Richard
• Description:
  Medical students have limited exposure to field epidemiology, even though will assume public health roles after graduation. We established a 10-week elective in field epidemiology during medical school. Students attended one-week didactic sessions on epidemiology, and nine weeks in field placement sites. We administered pre- and post-tests to evaluate the training. We enrolled 34 students in 2011 and 2012. In 2011, we enrolled five of 24 applicants from a class of 280 medical students. In 2012, we enrolled 18 of 81 applicants from a class of 360 students; plus 11 who participated in the didactic sessions only. Among the 34 students who completed the didactic sessions, 74% were male, and their median age was 24 years (range: 22-26). The median pre-test score was 64% (range: 47-88%) and the median post-test score was 82% (range: 72-100%). Successful completion of the field projects was 100%. Six (30%) students were not aware of public health as a career option before this elective, 56% rated the field experience as outstanding, and 100% reported it increased their understanding of epidemiology. Implementing an elective in field epidemiology within the medical training is a highly acceptable strategy to increase awareness for public health among medical students.
• Subjects:
  Adult Curriculum Education, Medical, Undergraduate Epidemiology Female Humans Kenya Male Public Health Schools, Medical Students, Medical Workforce Young Adult

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• Keywords:
  Africa Field Epidemiology Medical Elective Workforce Development
• Source:
  J Epidemiol Glob Health. 5(1):33-39
• Pubmed ID:
  25700921
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5497307
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; PEPFARUnited States/
• Place as Subject:
  Kenya
• Volume:
  5
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:eb54d5a024c04a327fe32f1b23099b1ff1aa8be6ecee825ef38b858211771d2d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/46591/cdc_46591_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 397.84 KB ]