Teaching community medicine to undergraduates: the role of student projects.

The community medicine primary care clerkship at the University of Manitoba integrates didactic elements, clinical placements and student projects in teaching community medicine. The clinical clerkship is undertaken in a variety of community settings and emphasizes ambulatory care. The rotation for each student is eight weeks, six of which are spent in the clinical clerkship, bracketed by two weeks of community medicine. Student research projects allow medical students to become familiar with the principles of population-based and community-oriented medicine as applied in clinical practice. Evaluation of 156 projects completed during the first two years of the program indicates that a wide range of community-based health problems were identified and a variety of methodological approaches applied.