Perceived Value of Public Health and Health Policy Information Among Medical Students: A Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Health educators have had difficulty introducing health policy and public health training into an already intensive medical school curriculum. Although the COVID-19 pandemic may have changed perspectives on the importance of public health, it may not change educational approaches. Assessment of medical student opinions and perceptions of health policy and public health might influence the weight given to these topics in medical education.

Methods: We used a 39-item instrument to cross-sectionally survey medical students, to assess their perceptions of the value of public health and health policy within their professional education.

Results: One hundred two students completed the survey (13% response rate). Most students reported an interest in public health (94.1%) and health policy (92.2%). Although interested, most students lacked confidence in their knowledge of public health and health policy on both state (health policy 34.3% confident; public health 43.1%) and national (health policy 41.0%; public health 44.1%) levels. Most students perceived that their institution has not sufficiently prepared them to understand health policy (34% felt prepared) and most reported insufficient information to participate in policy discussions (30.3% sufficiently informed).

Conclusions: Medical students reported an interest in public health and health policy while also reporting a lack of confidence in their level of preparedness to understand and participate in these fields, thus demonstrating a need for increased public health and health policy education within medical school curricula.