Henderson Rita I, Williams Keri, Crowshoe Lynden Lindsay
Department of Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada;
Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
Med Educ Online. 2015 Dec 23;20:29561. doi: 10.3402/meo.v20.29561. eCollection 2015.
Addressing systemic barriers experienced by low-income and minority students to accessing medical school, the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine has spearheaded a year-round, mini-med school outreach initiative for Aboriginal students.
Junior and senior high school youth generally attend the half-day program in classes or camps of 15-25, breaking into small groups for multisession activities. Undergraduate medical education students mentor the youth in stations offering experiential lessons in physical examination, reading x-rays, and anatomy. All resources from the medical school are offered in-kind, including a pizza lunch at midday, whereas community partners organize transportation for the attendees.
Opening the medical school and its resources to the community offers great benefits to resource-constrained schools often limited in terms of science education resources. The model is also an effort to address challenges among the medical professions around attracting and retaining students from underserved populations.
The prospect of increasing admission rates and successful completion of medical education among students from marginalized communities poses a real, though difficult-to-measure, possibility of increasing the workforce most likely to return to and work in such challenging contexts. A mini-medical school for Aboriginal youth highlights mutual, long-term benefit for diverse partners, encouraging medical educators and community-based science educators to explore the possibilities for deepening partnerships in their own regions.
为解决低收入和少数族裔学生在进入医学院方面遇到的系统性障碍，卡尔加里大学卡明医学院率先为原住民学生开展了一项全年的小型医学院外展计划。
初中和高中学生通常参加为期半天的课程或营地活动，每次活动有15至25名学生，分成小组进行多场活动。本科医学教育专业的学生在各个站点指导学生，提供体检、X光阅读和解剖学方面的实践课程。医学院提供所有资源，包括中午的披萨午餐，而社区合作伙伴则为参与者安排交通。
向社区开放医学院及其资源，对科学教育资源通常有限的资源匮乏学校大有裨益。该模式也是为应对医学专业在吸引和留住来自服务不足人群的学生方面所面临的挑战而做出的努力。
提高边缘化社区学生的录取率和医学教育的成功完成率，有可能增加最有可能回到此类具有挑战性环境并在其中工作的劳动力，尽管这一可能性难以衡量。为原住民青年开办的小型医学院凸显了不同合作伙伴的相互长期利益，鼓励医学教育工作者和社区科学教育工作者探索在各自地区深化合作关系的可能性。
