Using Community Mental Health Project As Venue To Train Professionalism: The Cyberjaya University College Of Medical Sciences Students Experience

Objective: The aim of this paper is to examine medical students views on the usefulness of a community project as a venue to train professionalism. Methods: Medical students at Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences (CUCMS) were surveyed following psychiatry community projects organized during year 4 undergraduate attachments in psychiatry. Results: A total of 176 students returned the survey forms. A majority of medical students thought that the psychiatry community project promotes teamwork and leadership skills. About a quarter thought that it helped foster their communication ability and encouraged them to be more reflective in their daily lives. These findings were translated into the potential of the community project to train collaborative and managerial affective domain learning outcomes of the university. Conclusions: The findings indicate that psychiatry community project or similar programmes may be useful tools to train several elements of medical professionalism. Future research however should utilise specific measurements to confirm this finding