How medical students learn about the social: Opportunities and limitations in service learning and volunteering

Brian Tuohy, Lauren Olsen and Hannah Calvelli

Social Science & Medicine, 2025, vol. 374, issue C

Abstract: Medical education's integration of social determinants of health (SDOH) is essential for fostering equitable and comprehensive patient care. Despite this need, many medical schools struggle to effectively teach SDOH due in part to the hidden curriculum—subtle, institutional norms and values that implicitly shape student learning and, in this case, undermine an appreciation of SDOH. This article examines the potential and limitations of service learning (SL) as an experiential learning modality to address these challenges. Traditional didactic methods often fail to capture the complex, relational aspects of modern medical practice, necessitating a more interactive and community-engaged approach. When grounded in principles of justice and community partnership, SL can help transform medical students from passive recipients of knowledge into active, critical thinkers. We identify four key outcomes of SL in medical education: 1) development of empathic and reflective practices, 2) explicit engagement with social injustices, 3) promotion of diverse perspectives, and 4) cultivation of advocacy skills. To explore these possibilities, we present a case study of an urban medical school's SL program focused on prison health and mass incarceration, using it as a heuristic tool to illustrate both the strengths and challenges of SL in medical education. Through this analysis, we demonstrate how SL can disrupt the hidden curriculum, deepen students' understanding of SDOH, and enhance their ability to provide compassionate, equitable care while highlighting the need for future empirical research that systematically assess SL's long-term impact on medical education and health equity.

Keywords: Medical education; Social determinants of health; Service learning; Hidden curriculum; Health equity; Community engagement; Carceral health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362500348X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:374:y:2025:i:c:s027795362500348x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118018

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().