Medical student education for injury prevention: closing the gap

Abstract

IntroductionInjury is a major public health issue in the USA. In 2017, unintentional injury was the leading cause of death for ages 1 through 44. Unfortunately, there is evidence that the sciences of injury prevention and control may not fully and widely integrated into medical school curriculum. This paper describes a novel injury prevention and control summer programme that was implemented in 2002 and is ongoing.MethodsThe main component of the Series includes at least seven injury-related lectures and discussions designed to provoke students’ interest and understanding of injury as a biopsychosocial disease. These lectures are organised in a seminar fashion and are 2–4 hours in duration. Kirkpatrick’s four-part model guides evaluation specific to our four programme objectives. Trainee satisfaction with the programme, knowledge and outcome (specific to career goals) is evaluated using several mixed-methods tools.ResultsA total of 318 students have participated in the Series. Evaluation findings show an increase in knowledge of injury-related concepts as well as an increase in interest in pursuing injury-related research topics in the future.ImplicationsThe Series is a novel and innovative programme that provides training in injury and injury prevention and control-related topics to medical students, as well as undergraduate, graduate and pharmacy students. We hope that by increasing students’ knowledge and understanding of injury prevention and control we are contributing to a physician workforce that understands the importance of a public health approach to injury prevention, that implements public health principles in practice and that advocates for policies and practices that positively impact injury prevention and control to help make our communities healthier and safer.