Community engagement in US and Canadian medical schools

Introduction: This study examines the integration of community engagement and community-engaged scholarship at all accredited US and Canadian medical schools in order to better understand and assess their current state of engagement. Methods: A 32-question data abstraction instrument measured the role of community-engagement and community-engaged scholarship as represented on the Web sites of all-accredited US and Canadian medical schools. The instrument targeted a medical school's mission and vision statements, institutional structure, student and faculty awards and honors, and faculty tenure and promotion guidelines. Results: Medical school Web sites demonstrate little evidence that schools incorporate-community engagement in their mission or vision statements or their promotion and tenure guidelines. The majority of medical schools do not include community service terms and/or descriptive language in their mission statements, and only 8.5% of medical schools incorporate community service and engagement as a primary or major criterion in promotion and tenure guidelines. Discussion: This research highlights significant gaps in the integration of community-engagement or community-engaged scholarship into medical school mission and vision-statements, promotion and tenure guidelines, and service administrative structures.