Background: The International Medical University (IMU) has an outcome-based curriculum defined by eight major curriculum outcome domains.The attributes, qualities and competencies expected of a health care professional form the basis for these outcome domains. Community service is an effective curriculum delivery tool widely practised by medical universities around the world. We present the results of a survey among IMU students to explore the effectiveness of community service as a curriculum delivery tool in enabling activities defined within the major curriculum outcome domains of IMU.
Methods: A self-administered 6-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to survey student participants of 20 community service events held in a rural village between 2007–2012. The survey tool included questions on demographic data as well as the perception of the students on whether participation in the events enabled them to experience activities defined under the eight major curriculum outcome domains of IMU.The one sample Student t-test was used to test for statistical significance while regression analysis was done to look for significant predictors.
Results: A total of 255 students were surveyed, of which 229 (90.5%) were medical students while the rest were nursing students. Most of the students were in the 3rd (48.2%) and 4th (43.8%) year of their studies and have completed the surgery, internal medicine and family medicine posting. Six out of the 8 curriculum outcomes domains were achieved through participation in the community service programme.
Conclusion: Community service is an effective curriculum delivery tool for the outcome-based curriculum of IMU where activities defined in six out of eight outcome domains were achieved.