Embedding Social Prescribing to the Medical School Curriculum

Problem

Social prescribing (SP) is now a key aspect of 21st century healthcare delivery and NHS Long term plan, yet it is missing from the core undergraduate curriculum in UK medical schools. We explored how to introduce this new content to ensure early years students understand what social prescribing is, how it works and why it is beneficial.

Approach

In devising the curriculum delivery format in a new medical school we used a combined approach. Collaboration was with student Social Prescribing champions, academic staff, Social Prescribing researchers and partner stakeholders from the voluntary sector. We devised structured content that makes use of the skills and resources available.

Year 1: Intro to social prescribing – created and presented by social prescribing researchers, along with myself as social prescribing lead.

Year 2: Talks given by expert patients who have benefited from social prescribing to enable medical student to see results from a patient’s point of view – sourced by the voluntary sector.

Year 3: Interactive simulated MDT– researched by social prescribing lead and researchers observing real time MDTs, then writing and performing a scripted MDT based around social prescribing, for medical student to see how it can work in action.

Findings

Results from the first two years of this pilot project show that the programme delivery has been well received by the cohort, with survey data so far showing that students have increased awareness (60%), interest in the subject (100%), and 63% were more likely to identify opportunities for SP on placement. We found that taking an integrated, structured approach which builds on the content and delivery year on year, first established a core knowledge base and secondly led to increased engagement from students in the topic.

Having implemented SP into the curriculum, it will now be retained in the core timetable.

We are currently in the process of more formalising our findings. Rather than student post-surveys, we are creating an assessment for this new content in the form of a case study. Students will complete this social prescribing based case study before and after the session and results can be directly compared, providing authentic results.

Consequences

Embedding SP into the early years curriculum in a structured and interactive manner is feasible and is an important addition to 21st century medical education.

The pilot has also led to the creation of a novel link worker 'shadowing' scheme for medical students as part of an optional module, is association with regional SP stakeholders, as a further development.