抄録
As Japan continues to face the challenges of an aging population, a community-based integrated care system has been promoted to address evolving healthcare needs. Following the revision of The Model Core Curriculum for Medical Education in 2006, the Showa University School of Medicine implemented community healthcare practical training for third-year medical students. This study is the first to report the impact of enhanced preparatory learning on students’ knowledge and attitudes toward community healthcare prior to their 2024 training. In 2024, improvements to the pre-training curriculum included a new confirmation test to strengthen knowledge of community medicine, a regional diagnosis activity based on the ACCCA framework, and role-play exercises to improve communication skills. Student self-evaluation forms and supervisors’ evaluation forms were compared between 2023 and 2024 using the unpaired Student’s t-test. Additionally, students’ self-assessed communication skills before and after the 2024 training were analyzed using the paired Student’s t-test. In 2024, students reported significant improvements in self-evaluation items related to “active participation,” “goal achievement,” and “understanding of hospital-clinic and hospital-hospital cooperation.” Supervisors’ evaluations also reflected higher scores across all assessed areas, including “attitude,” “personal appearance,” “hospitality,” “adherence to rules,” and “training performance.” Furthermore, students’ self-evaluations of communication skills improved significantly across all categories after the training. Enhanced preparation and learning prior to community healthcare practical training significantly improved students’ knowledge, attitudes, and practical skills. These findings highlight the value of structured pre-training education and suggest that improvements may contribute to the development of future healthcare professionals who are well-equipped to serve in community medicine. Future research should determine the optimal content and duration of community healthcare education.
