Community Engagement: USFQ beyond its campus and classrooms

Abstract

Since 2016, the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) Medical School, in conjunction with Ecuador"™s Ministry of Health (MSP), has implemented USFQ"™s Community Outreach Program in 16 communities spanning the valleys of Tumbaco and Los Chillos. The program has outward-facing social objectives, including strengthening health promotion efforts in the community, as well as student-focused academic objectives, such as the development of technical competencies for medical students in the field of health prevention and promotion. The USFQ Community Outreach Program emphasizes the humanistic aspect of medicine through practical engagement. The present article intends to share the successes, lessons learned, and challenges of the program and, in doing so, shed light on the projects that USFQ medical students are completing in the community under the supervision of professors and mentors from USFQ and the MSP. Currently, the program has 16 projects in the following areas of focus: healthy aging, chronic conditions including diabetes and arterial hypertension, prevention of cervical cancer, maternal health, prevention of unwanted teenage pregnancy, care for people with special needs and their caregivers, infant health, and HIV prevention, among others. Each year, some 8,000 people from all age groups experience the benefits of services directed through this program.