Community participation in the School of Medicine

Community Participation

The School of Medicine is pleased to welcome Genevive Savundranayagam as an intern working on a project evaluating the experience of Friends and Community Partners within our Community Engagement Framework. Genevive has recently completed a Master of Professional Communication at UWS.

Our Commitment to Community Engagement

Greater Western Sydney (GWS) continues to rapidly grow sizeable new suburban populations, and this provides a unique opportunity to be a part of the dynamic, changing, social and health context as it emerges. The School of Medicine was purposefully placed in Sydney’s outer metropolitan area to create the next generation of doctors who are skilled in working in such circumstances.

Community input is helping us to develop:

• the skills medical practitioners need to work effectively in GWS
• the Partnerships where students can learn these skills
• research into areas that local communities themselves define as important.

The learning principles are to:

• start community based interaction early in the course
• use the connections formed through the whole course
• build a student's community competencies by starting with simpler issues and moving to more complex matters.

The aims are that our students will:

• develop competencies in working with communities
• develop insights into community issues and how these might be tackled
• appreciate their role as doctor working among these issues and as a part of a team.

Contact Us

Dr Louella McCarthy is the Manager of Community Participation with the School of Medicine.